Fast Digs: Ruth Maxhimer Follow-up

So, who was this Ruth Maxhimer?

Perhaps, some explanation of her athleticism can be found in who her father was; by 1939, William Maxhimer had been a thirty-year employee of the Los Angeles parks department and was, at that time, the superintendent of the North Hollywood park branch. It is entirely possible that Mr. Maxhimer encouraged a sense of competition in his daughter from a young age. It is also possible that she pursued the interest of her own accord helped on, perhaps, by her fathers' position in the parks department. Her interest in athletics continued, not just from a participation standpoint, but in terms of organizing as well - during her high school years, she served as the Girls' Athletic Association president at North Hollywood High School, before graduating from there in 1940. This Association had charge of all girls' athletics at the high school and staged inter-team games and class games after school hours.

members of the North Hollywood Cycle Club, including Ruth Maxhimer (3rd from right) during a club ride to Hansen Dam

Ruth receiving her 7th place medal from club president William Yates

We do not know when she first got her start racing bicycles, but it is not hard to imagine it being during kids races at the parks; you may remember from reading Fast Digs, that individual parks with the city's parks departments organized youth races during the summer months, and during after school hours. The first notice of Ruth related to bicycle racing is from a 1940 photo of her receiving a medal for 7th place, following a twenty-two mile race, in which the field was composed almost entirely of men.

In 1941, the California State Championships were held, over two weekends (20th and 27th of July), in the Arroyo Seco, the Brookside Park Course, "the best in the state for bicycle racing" - a precursor to the 15th Annual National Championships to be held at the same place at the end of August. In the opening race for the women competitors, Ruth and Bernice McCann, of Bakersfield sprinted to a dead-heat at the end of the first days' six-mile race, each racer claiming four points. Hazel Hartman, Maxhimer's North Hollywood teammate finished 3rd, and Mary Lamy, of Santa Monica took 4th place. When July 27th came around, Maxhimer donned in the blue and white of the North Hollywood Cycle Club, and McCann again battled one another to claim the state title; McCann won a one-mile race, with Maxhimer finishing second. The two racers then switched position at the end of a three-mile race, Maxhimer taking the win ahead of McCann. This precipitated a special one-mile run-off, won by Maxhimer, to determine the champion for 1941.

Bernice McCan (left) and Ruth Maxhimer

Ruth Maxhimer (1941)

The National Championships, at the end of August, though taking place on a single weekend, largely followed the same format, with the women racing once on the first day. The six-mile race, run on Saturday the 23rd, was won by Jean Michels of Chicago, ahead of Elsie Stracke, of St. Louis (2nd), Maxhimer in 3rd and McCann 4th.

With a crowd of over 5,000 lining the course, filling the stands, and looking down from the banks of the Arroyo Seco, the women raced three mile and six-mile events the following day (men raced fifteen and thirty-mile events). In both events, the favorites again held sway, with Stracke winning the three mile race ahead of Michels (2nd), Mildred Kugler (3rd), and Maxhimer (4th). Michels came to the front in the six-mile race, with Stracke 2nd, Maxhimer 3rd, and McCann finishing 4th. The placings were enough to win Michels the championship, with Stracke finishing 2nd overall. Maxhimer, again found herself in a run-off to determine 3rd; that one-mile race was won by the New Jersey Champion, and defending National Champion, Kugler.

Though Ruth apparently continued to race over the following couple years at least, her name does not turn up with much frequency. Racing again in Pasadena, in August 1943, for the Southern California Championships, she successfully defended the title that she had won in 1942, winning both three and six-mile races. Interestingly enough, her greatest claim to fame may have come from a photograph that made national news, and circulated in newspapers around the county in 1943 when, as a California "girl war worker," and working the night shift in the war effort at Vega Aircraft (she later worked, the same year, at Lockheed as well), she relaxed by working out on the "flying rings... in the great sunny outdoors by day."

Though Ruth and her new husband (they were married at the end of February 1944) brought their bicycles with them on their honeymoon, perhaps a sign that she intended to remain active in the sport, her name does not seem to appear in any race results after.

Ruth Maxhimer (1941)

Ruth Maxhimer and Larry Stone

taking a break from work at the Vega Aircraft plant in Los Angeles