Mabel Marie "Dolly" Staton (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

: Landry) (born November 20, 1932) is a retired American

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete, specializing in

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

and

sprints Sprint may refer to: Aerospace *Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automotive and motorcycle * Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint ...

. She represented the United States at the

1952 Olympics 1952 Olympics refers to both: *The 1952 Winter Olympics, which were held in Oslo, Norway *The 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the X ...

Career

During the preliminary round in 152, she set the Olympic record in the long jump at , which only lasted temporarily as

Yvette Williams Dame Yvette Winifred Corlett (née Williams; 25 April 1929 – 13 April 2019) was a New Zealand track-and-field athlete who was the first woman from her country to win an Olympic gold medal and to hold the world record in the women's long jum ...

demolished her record with later in the same round. Landry finished seventh in the final, only managing one legal jump. She also was part of the American team at the

1955 Pan American Games The 1955 Pan American Games opened on March 12, 1955, in the University Stadium (now Olympic Stadium) in Mexico City, Mexico, in front of a capacity crowd of 100,000 spectators. A total number of 2,583 athletes from 22 nations marched in review ...

, winning a bronze medal in the 60 meters and a gold medal in the 4×100 meters relay anchoring a team with Isabelle Daniels,

Mae Faggs Aeriwentha ("Mae") Faggs Starr (April 10, 1932 in Mays Landing, New Jersey – January 27, 2000 in Cincinnati) was an American athlete who mainly competed in the sprint events. She graduated from Bayside High School, and then went to Tennessee S ...

, and Barbara Jones. She was a four time United States champion in the

. She also won two outdoor titles in the now defunct 50 meter dash. Indoors, she won the national title in the 60 yard dash twice, but did not have the opportunity to duplicate her wins in the outdoor long jump because in the 1950s, women only competed in the

standing long jump The standing long jump, also known as the standing broad jump, is an athletics event. It was an Olympic event until 1912. It is one of three standing variants of track and field jumping events, which also include the standing high jump and ...

. Through her career she competed for the Chicago

CYO Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) is an international Catholic Church, Catholic youth movement founded by Bishop Bernard James Sheil, Bernard Sheil in Chicago in 1930. It would become a major factor in the development of race relations in the US ...

as their only member initially. Her notoriety encouraged the all-white Hurricanes to want to join her, creating one of the first integrated track teams. She attended

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

on an academic scholarship before spending a career as a teacher. At age 16, on her way to the 1949

National Championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

in Odessa, Texas, her coach purchased a sleeping compartment for the star athlete to rest. At 6 a.m. she was awakened by the engineer ""Get out. We just crossed the

Mason–Dixon line The Mason–Dixon line, also called the Mason and Dixon line or Mason's and Dixon's line, is a demarcation line separating four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (part of Virginia ...

. You have to get up front with the other coloreds." The incident led to a successful

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

lawsuit by the CYO against the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...

Post-career

In 2008, she was presented with the DePaul University letterman's jacket. She never competed for her alma mater because at the time they did not have a track team for women, a common situation in that era. She was selected into the

Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame The Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, located in the Hawthorne Race Course, in Stickney/Cicero, near Chicago, honors sports greats associated with the Chicago metropolitan area. It was founded in 1979 as a trailer owned by the Olympia Brewing Compan ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landry, Mabel Living people 1932 births Track and field athletes from Chicago American female long jumpers American female sprinters African-American track and field athletes Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 1955 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1955 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in athletics (track and field) Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in athletics (track and field) 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American women