Mary Lou Retton

Finally, Olympian Mary Lou Retton is home, but she is on the road to recovery after being hospitalized with pneumonia earlier this month. 

(This billboard is just across the street from my apartment building and beside the WVU Baseball Stadium in Morgantown, WV. Photo by Howard Gorrell.)

The billboard in West Virginia?

Mary Lou Retton was born in Fairmont, WV, 20 miles south of my current apartment building. Fairmont is also the birthplace of Alabama Football Head Coach Nick Saban. Fairmont is 7.5 miles east of Sen. Joe Manchin’s Farmington, WV home, and 25 miles south of Actor Don Knott’s birthplace. So on!

I pointed to the ‘Mary Lou Retton’ plaque on the Hall of Fame Wall at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum (USOPM) in Colorado Springs two years ago. Michelle Dusserre Farrell, USOPM Senior Director, proudly exclaimed, “She is my [1984] teammate.” [As the youngest US women’s gymnastics team member at the 1984 Olympics, Michelle took a silver medal in the team competition.]

Last year, Kenny Paes, the son of my dad’s 337th Infantry soldier, invited me for the “Welcome to WV” dinner. After introducing his wife to me, Kenny said she was Retton’s Fairmont High School classmate.

(Jeff Float on the left. Photo from his Facebook page)

After the announcement of Retton’s sudden illness, Deaflympian/Olympian Jeff Float posted the picture above on his Facebook page and wrote:

Sending prayers to Mary Lou Retton & her family! One of my fondest memories of the .84 Games was meeting her in the tunnel of the Coliseum just before the Closing Ceremonies. Here's my teammate David Larson with the beaming Mary Lou on his shoulders as we paraded around the track holding the Stars in Motion banner. On that night, her smile was as bright as the Olympic Flame!

Let us look at the video of Retton’s last event of the All-Around competition at the 1984 Olympic Games.

Now we are waiting to see her ‘Olympic Flame’ smile again.