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BIOGRAPHIE: Local speedskating 'grandmother' Garbe dies at age 90 By GARY D'AMATO Posted: Jan. 17, 2006 - While Chris Witty was making her celebratory lap after winning the 1,000-meter gold medal at the 2002 Olympic Games, she looked up into the stands at the Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City and saw a familiar face. "I was, like, 'There's Lorraine Garbe!' " Witty said. "I was coming around the home stretch and I could see her and her daughter in the stands. That's one of my best memories of 2002." Garbe, 90, a longtime member of the West Allis Speedskating Club and a tireless volunteer and ambassador for the sport, died Friday at her home. Widely known as the "grandmother of speedskating," she had been diagnosed with lung cancer in November. Garbe's association with the West Allis club dated to 1963, when her oldest son, John, started skating. "I think she loved the family aspect of the sport," said Kristi Ribar, Garbe's daughter and a member of the first world short-track team in 1976. "She liked the fact that anyone could get involved." Garbe and her late husband, Gerhard, ran the old outdoor oval at State Fair Park for 14 years. After the Pettit National Ice Center was built, Garbe remained a fixture at weekend races, working as a volunteer in many capacities. "She was there every single weekend," said Witty. "My parents probably have a picture of me as a little kid, getting some award from Lorraine Garbe." Unfailingly smiling and cheerful, Garbe went out of her way to get to know all the speedskaters who raced in Milwaukee and kept in contact with them over the years. "Somehow, she was able to find out everybody's birthdays and anniversaries," said Peggy Raney of Elm Grove, the mother of Olympian Catherine Raney. "I had a series of illnesses and I got more cards from Lorraine Garbe than I got from everybody else. "She was a phenomenal person, a loving person." For years, Garbe faithfully phoned in race results to local newspapers. She didn't believe in fax machines or computers, preferring to do it the old-fashioned way, by calling the paper and reciting the results. "When I was a kid, even if it was just a pack-style race when I was 10 years old, my name would make it in the paper and that was so cool because kids from school or their parents would say, 'Hey, I saw your name in the paper,' " Witty said. "And that was because of Lorraine Garbe." Garbe also was an avid golfer and gardener and sold Avon products for 40 years. She was famous for handing out lip balm and hand cream to the skaters. "Every year when we would come back for trials or whatever it was, Lorraine's smiling face would be there and she'd be handing out Chapsticks," said Casey FitzRandolph of Verona, the 500-meter gold medalist at the 2002 Winter Games. "She was such a big part of so many great memories." Ribar said she was happy to be able to take her mother, who was then 86, to the 2002 Winter Games. They stayed for three days and watched Witty win her gold medal in the 1,000. "My mom was thrilled," Ribar said. "When Chris won, she stood and clapped and cheered as loud as she could." Garbe was inducted into the U.S. Speedskating Hall of Fame in 2003. The year before, she was named winner of the George Howie Award for volunteerism in speedskating. "She was a die-hard for the sport," skating legend Bonnie Blair Cruikshank said. "She reminded me of everybody's mom. She would do anything for you. She was a special lady and she touched a lot of people's lives." Visitation is 4 to 8 p.m. today at Bevsek-Verbick Funeral Home and Crematory, 10210 W. Lincoln Ave. Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday at Mt. Hope Lutheran Church, 8633 W. Becher St. - From the Jan. 18, 2006 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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