WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Funeral plans finalized for former women's wrestler "Fabulous Moolah"

Funeral plans finalized for former women's wrestler "Fabulous Moolah"

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Inside her home on Moolah Drive, north of Columbia, is a fitting tribute to perhaps the greatest female wrestler of all time.
 
Lillian Ellison, aka The Fabulous Moolah, may have passed on, but her heart is still there. The ring inside her home where she trained aspiring wrestlers with fellow wrestling pioneer Mae young.   
  
"She turned out to be one of my very closest friends. I loved her very dearly. She was one of the greatest girl wrestlers I've ever met and ever known," Young told WIS News 10.

In 2002, Moolah sat down with WIS while promoting a book about her life.

"First, I wanted to be an aviator. I wanted to be like Amelia Earhardt. I always wanted something wild, you know? So then, when my dad took me to a wrestling match, I saw Mildred Burke throwing this girl around the ring and over the top rope and I said I believe I could do that," Ellison said in 2002.

And she did. In 1956, Moolah cashed in, winning a world championship she would hold 28 years.
    
Moolah even became a Saturday morning TV cartoon. And then of course, there was her pairing with big time wrestling promoter Vince McMahon.

Moolah was still in the ring back in 2002, when she was 79 years young.

"And the wrestling fans, she loved you all. She loved you so much. She would be ready to stay there and sign autographs all night, if you asked her for it," Young said.

Young joins those around the country and the globe remembering the woman who lived a lifetime of  memorable moments in sport and in life.

"Vince promised that we could have a wrestling match on our 100th birthday. She won't make it, but I will make it for her," Young says.

Visitation for Moolah is Tuesday night at Dunbar Funeral Home on Devine Street from 6pm until 9pm. It is open to the public.

Updated by Logan Smith