Dottie Might Frazier, trailblazing Lengthy Seashore adventurer and a Rosie the Riveter, dies at 99 – Press Telegram

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Though she barely weighed 100 kilos and stood 5 ft tall, legendary diving pioneer and trailblazer Dottie Might Frazier, who died just lately at 99, by no means let something stand in the way in which of her lengthy lifetime of journey and achievement.

At an early age, she realized the way to fend for herself. When she was a younger lady rising up in Lengthy Seashore, her father taught her the way to field to guard herself from boys who had been teasing, pushing, hitting and name-calling her.

“At some point, I fought again and gave just a few bloody noses and black eyes utilizing my fists as dad had taught me,” she mentioned later in a ebook on her life. “Afterwards I used to be seemed on as an uncommon lady to not be messed with.”

In her later years, in her 90s, Frazier preferred to put on a T-shirt with the saying, “Assuming I used to be like most aged ladies was your first mistake.”

That was Frazier. Feisty and fearless.

However her preventing spirit and coronary heart lastly gave out Feb. 8, when she died peacefully and unexpectedly on the East Lengthy Seashore dwelling she had lived in for greater than 80 years.

“I used to be holding her hand when she handed,” mentioned Cyril Might, her husband of fifty years. “Outdated age simply caught up along with her.”

A celebration of life in Frazier’s honor is ready for July 16, Might mentioned. Coincidentally, Might’s birthday is on the identical day, July 16, as Dottie, however a unique 12 months. He was born in 1929; she was born in 1922.

Frazier’s lifetime achievements are as various as they’re astonishing.

Within the Nineteen Forties, she began instructing freediving, one of many first ladies to do this. Within the Fifties, she turned the primary feminine scuba teacher in america and perhaps the world. She needed to overcome sexism and the prejudices of males who thought scuba diving instruction was too bodily demanding for girls.

Frazier, a member of the Ladies Divers Corridor of Fame, was the primary lady to personal a dive store, the place she ran dive courses and bought wetsuits she designed. She additionally was one of many first feminine hard-hat divers. She was a constitution member of the Lengthy Seashore Neptunes dive membership. In 2019, she acquired the celebrated USA Diving Pioneer Award from the Historic Diving Society.

She was additionally the primary Lady Scout in Lengthy Seashore, enjoying the bugle and sounding reveille and faucets on the Lady Scout camp within the mountains. Her mom was one of many first Lady Scout commissioners in Lengthy Seashore.

Frazier additionally had been a swimsuit mannequin, a aggressive billiards participant, a racquetball participant, a surfer, and a water and snow skier. She knew the way to repair auto transmissions and used to journey bikes across the area. She bought her final motorbike in 2019 after the DMV would not renew her motorbike license — however her driver’s license had been renewed till 2023.

A 1939 Poly Excessive graduate, Frazier labored throughout World Struggle II as a Rosie the Riveter with Douglas Plane. She additionally labored in industrial fishing whereas elevating 4 boys. (The surname Frazier got here from her second marriage; Might was her third and present husband.)

Her adventuresome spirit took her dredging for gold within the Sierra Nevadas, and fishing, boating and motorcycling in San Blas Puerto Mexico and Baja Mexico. She used a spear gun to kill a wild boar that attacked her on Catalina Island. In 2013, she acquired a Lifetime Achievement Award within the Press-Telegram’s former Wonderful Ladies program.

Accolades from family and friends got here pouring in when information of Frazier’s demise unfold.

“Dottie was a traditional, one in every of a sort,” mentioned Jeanne Bear Sleeper, a fellow member of the Ladies Divers Corridor of Fame. “These of us who adopted in her fin wake owed a lot to her ‘breaking water’ for us. She was so forward of her time.”

Lorraine Sadler, one other member of the Ladies Divers Corridor of Fame, mentioned Frazier was the one feminine mentor she had in the course of the early years of her diving profession.

“And for a lot of many years, I realized a lot from her,” she mentioned, “not simply diving, however together with (however not doing it very effectively) on the way to shoot pool.”

Barbara Allen, one other Ladies Divers Corridor of Fame member, remembered a memorable journey to Catalina Island, throughout which Frazier’s boat stopped useless simply exterior the mooring buoys.

The Harbor Patrol, Allen mentioned, supplied a tow — however Frazier rebuffed it.

“Dottie mentioned, ‘Heck, no. If I can’t repair it, I don’t belong out right here,” Allen mentioned. “She grabbed her toolbox, discovered and glued the issue and we had been off once more.”

Frazier and her father, Francis Reider, additionally had a detailed reference to the YMCA of Larger Lengthy Seashore. Frazier was the primary feminine member on the Y. Her father was a board member of the Downtown Y and sponsored the “Reider Cabin” at Camp Oakes within the San Bernardino Mountains.

Frazier helped renovate the cabin and went ziplining at Camp Oakes when she was 95.

“Residing life to the fullest was a trademark of Dottie’s life and her time with us,” mentioned Alfredo Velasco, president and CEO of the Y. “Whether or not it was the will to have the YMCA document because the oldest zipliner, competing in opposition to anybody who would dare play her in a sport of pool or dressing up in her colourful and flashy outfits at particular occasions, Dottie was bigger than life.”

Frazier was born Dorothy Adell Reider on July 16, 1922, to Francis and Laura Davis Reider, who lived on Ocean Boulevard, one block from the Pacific Ocean.

Her father and grandfather, W. Reider, constructed a bathhouse nearer to the seaside after which the unique Lengthy Seashore Tent Metropolis to accommodate vacationers interested in the rising metropolis’s waterfront.

Her father beloved boating and had a sailboard, a 21-foot sloop named Dotadell, taken from her identify, Dorothy Adell. Her father additionally was a Lengthy Seashore harbor commissioner and Lengthy Seashore water commissioner.

“I began going out with dad on boats after I was solely 2 years previous,” Frazier mentioned as soon as. “The Pacific Ocean was my playground.”

When she was 3, she jumped into Alamitos Bay and swam by herself for a half block to the seaside. When she was six, she made her first dive into the ocean close to Catalina Island to get a espresso pot her father had by chance dropped off their boat into 15 ft of water.

At 7, she plunged into the ocean to save lots of her 5-year-old sister, Jeanne, who had fallen off their boat close to the Lengthy Seashore harbor entrance.

These had been simply among the early adventures for Frazier, who spent a lot of her exceptional life in a world of water.

The primary time she wore a diving masks — made by her dad from items of fireplace hose, interior tube strips, glass, tape and glue was — “like a miracle,” Frazier mentioned in an interview two years in the past.

She describes the incident in additional element within the ebook, “Trailblazer: The Extraordinary Lifetime of Diving Pioneer, Dottie Frazier.” The ebook may be bought on Amazon.

“I might see all the pieces below water as clear as if I had been on the floor,” she wrote. “From this time ahead, this turned my world. New discoveries offered themselves each day amid this always altering underwater wonderland.”

When she was 10, a devastating earthquake hit the Larger Lengthy Seashore Space, on March 10, 1933 — however Frazier, in a later interview, remembered it prefer it was yesterday.

“I woke as much as discover white lilies throughout my physique, and I used to be very moist,” she recalled.

She had been sitting by the fireside doing her homework when the quake struck.

“The massive vase above me on the mantle had fallen off and landed on my head and knocked me out,” she mentioned. “Once I awoke, I grabbed my cat, Mouchy, and my pet rat and went with my household to Sign Hill after which to my father’s boat moored within the harbor.”

Greater than 120 individuals died in the course of the quake, together with 53 in Lengthy Seashore, making it the state’s second-deadliest earthquake.

Though Frazier beloved the water, her “sanctuary” was her dwelling and backyard, her husband mentioned. Till virtually the day she died, Might mentioned, Frazier took care of a improbable array of fruit and veggies.

“She was most pleased with her backyard,” mentioned Danny Frazier, one in every of her sons and a retired San Luis Obispo hearth captain now dwelling in Paso Robles. “It was like diving for her.

“She challenged herself as a result of she wished to be self-sufficient,” he added. “She stored rain water in large barrels for her crops. She grew beans, tomatoes, strawberries, beets, artichokes, broccoli and squash.”

She was particularly pleased with her Anna apple tree and orange tree.

Her son, Danny Frazier, mentioned that apart from her skilled achievements, his mom additionally had an enormous coronary heart when it got here to serving to individuals.

“It was superb how many individuals she helped to get again on their ft,” he mentioned. “Her generosity and kindness was distinctive, and he or she didn’t speak about it a lot. She simply did it.”



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