Stephanie Westerfeld - 1961 Ladies FS

Stephanie placed 2nd at the 1961 US National Championships in figure skating. A month later, the plane carrying the US team to Worlds crashed, killing everyone on board.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• stephanie
• westerfeld
• 1961
• us
• national
• figure
• skating
• championships
• plane
• crash

[owestjr1]

My name is Otto Westerfeld Jr. Stephanie and Sharon were my half sisters....we shared the same Dad.

My Dad never got over the loss.

This past summer I was approached by a women here in KC who said she was writing a book. She asked for videos that I had so she could copy them. She never returned them to me.

What a world we live in...now my own children cannot see the videos nor can I.

[cheyenneindians]

I went clear through school (K-12) with Stephanie and was at that school when news came of the crash. She always said hello to a shy nerd like me. She would get crowd exposure by skating for the fans between periods at the Colorado College hockey games at the Broadmoor World Arena.

[BoraBoraGirl2001]

Funny how the skaters skate right off into the crowd...so different from today!

[Nichoo28]

You really ought to try and get those videos back, if she won´t give them to you voluntarily you should report her to the police. This is your heritage, not hers! All the best and good luck!

[mcwolfus]

@owestjr1 Can you not go and find her?

[vesperholly]

@owestjr1 How terrible of her! Have you thought of contacting the US Figure Skating Association? They may be able to provide your family with film or video. The film RISE about the crash featured quite a bit about Steffi, Shari and the Westerfeld family. Your half sisters were very talented skaters.

[rickram1961]

@owestjr1

What a pathetic shame to hear!

[geojaw]

Stepanie sat in the desk in from of me in seveal 8th grade classes at Cheyenne Mt.

Elementary...will always remember that tragic event. It was a wonderful time at the Broadmoor for figure skating.

[042843042843]

Like cheyenneindians, I was a student at Stephanie's school for 13 years and knew her pretty well. I liked her and was very sad when she died so tragically.

steve@slhawk.com

[TomDegan]

Beautiful. What a tragedy. February 15, 1961 was the day my sister was born. I guess that wasn't such a happy day after all.

Tom Degan

[helenesg7]

To Otto- There was a book that came out recently called Indelible Tracings by Patricia Shelley Bushman. If this is the person who has your videos I am sure you can find her on the internet and contact her.