Janet Wolfe
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Jeanette Boyer (June 13, 1933 – July 28, 1951), also known as Janet Boyer Wolfe, was an American
professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...
. She was the foster daughter of Billy Wolfe and Mildred Burke. She was trained by her father, who operated a troupe of female wrestlers associated with the NWA.Hornbaker, Tim; ''National Wrestling Alliance, The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Pro Wrestling'', p. 291,
ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canada, Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholar ...
, 2007,


Early History

Jeanette Boyer was born to Selma Boyer, and was raised in Orr in St. Louis County, Minnesota. Little is known about her family life, other than she attended a wrestling school and was trained by Tony Stecher in wrestling, hoping to get signed into a promotion. She was eventually sent to Billy Wolfe when she was 17, but was initially rejected due to her small size and weight. Shortly after turning 18 and gaining weight, she was adopted by Billy Wolfe, who mentored her. She adopted "Wolfe" as her surname. Mildred Burk had little involvement in her life. She only wrestled three matches in her life, with the third being against Ella Waldek on July 27, 1951.


Death

On July 27, 1951, Wolfe was body-slammed hard on the mat by Ella Waldek, to whom she lost the match in approximately seven minutes, which might have ruptured a vein in her stomach. Later that same evening, in the final contest of the benefit show at Patterson Field in East Liverpool, Ohio, she was scheduled to be the tag-team partner of Eva Lee, but she was complaining of a major headache minutes prior to this. Nevertheless she wrestled for a few minutes before tagging Lee, who then saw her partner collapse on the ring apron and lost consciousness. The match was stopped as people attended to Wolfe, who never regained consciousness. She was brought into the locker room, where she was briefly operated on by medical officials who were at the event, applying oxygen masks, before paramedics arrived and took Wolfe to East Liverpool Osteopathic Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 4:00 a.m. on July 28. The official cause of death was a brain hemorrhage, and the doctor found that a blood clot had formed possibly six or seven days before, signifying that Waldek was not to blame for her death, even though police questioned all three women involved in the match and ultimately let them go. In the aftermath, Waldek continued to perform and was labeled as a murderer by the crowd, something which is said to have helped her notoriety. Waldek, however, always believed that the huge meal that Wolfe ate between the two matches contributed to her death.


See also

* List of premature professional wrestling deaths


References


External links

*Janet Boyer Wolfe a
Find a Grave
*
The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American wrestler
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Janet Boyer 1933 births 1951 deaths American female professional wrestlers Professional wrestlers from Minnesota Professional wrestling deaths 20th-century female professional wrestlers 20th-century American professional wrestlers Sports deaths in Ohio Sportspeople from St. Louis County, Minnesota 20th-century American sportswomen