Kay Baxter (October 3, 1945 – May 16, 1988) was a pioneer
female bodybuilder.
Baxter competed in women's bodybuilding from 1979 to 1986, competing in four
IFBB Ms. Olympia competitions between 1982 and 1985. She was inspirational for many up-and-coming female bodybuilders, especially those who desired a physique that would be large and muscular even by bodybuilding standards. She was a groundbreaker in making wrestling videos and short action movies that catered to fans of women's bodybuilding, as well as appearing in the 1985
''Billboard'' top 3 song "
California Girls
"California Girls" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1965 album, '' Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)''. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the lyrics detail an appreciation for women across the world and a wish ...
", by
David Lee Roth whom she trained and dated.
The early female bodybuilders already had been groundbreakers, as they had been muscular athletes, usually in track or gymnastics, at a time when neither muscularity nor sports were encouraged for young girls. Baxter had been a collegiate gymnast at
Kent State University
Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in ...
and was still quite well muscled when taking up bodybuilding in her mid-30s. She competed in some of the earliest prominent women's bodybuilding contests. The first major mainstream article on the sport, "Here She Is, Miss, Well, What?" in the March 17, 1980 ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...
'' opened with full page shots of
Cammie Lusko
Cammie Lusko (born April 5, 1958) is an American athlete best known for her contributions to female bodybuilding in the 1980s.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Lusko entered her first bodybuilding contest in 1979, finishing third in the Robby Ro ...
and Baxter doing rear double biceps shots. A full-body shot of Baxter doing a front double biceps pose was on the inside page. At the time, Baxter weighed around 120 lbs for contests at a height of 5'3".
In 1982, ''
Muscle & Fitness
''Muscle & Fitness'' is an American fitness and bodybuilding magazine founded in 1935 by Canadian entrepreneur Joe Weider. It was originally published under the title ''Your Physique'', before being renamed to ''Muscle Builder'' in 1954, and acq ...
'' ran a three-page photo feature on different types of female bodybuilding physiques—
Shelly Gruwell with the long, lean physique most like a model;
Rachel McLish
Rachel Livia Elizondo McLish (born 21 June 1955) is an American female bodybuilding champion, actress, and author.
Early life and education
McLish was born as Raquel Livia Elizondo in 1955 in Harlingen, Texas, the second-youngest daughter born. ...
epitomizing the muscular, average framed woman; Baxter with the more muscular than average (for a bodybuilder) but still graceful build (she was posed with right leg extended, squatting on the left leg); 5-1
Mary Roberts with the short, thick, powerful build. Yet even as that issue hit the stands, Baxter was training with legendary male bodybuilder Don "The Ripper" Ross with the goal of redefining the outer limits of female bodybuilder muscularity. She later admitted to taking some steroids during this period. She and Ross expected at the 1982 Ms. Olympia, she would finish either first or last.
Baxter's clothed entrance into the host hotel lobby at that Olympia has become legendary among longtime bodybuilding fans. Reg Bradford, in his contest coverage for BodyPower magazine, called her "massive with a capital M" and declared it was apparent "
Lindsay Wagner
Lindsay Jean Wagner (born June 22, 1949) is an American film and television actress, model, author, singer, and acting coach. Wagner is best known for her leading role in the American science-fiction television series '' The Bionic Woman'' (197 ...
had been imitating The Bionic Woman on television" for here was a true superwoman in the flesh. In a posthumous interview published by Female Bodybuilding and Weight Training, Baxter claimed a competitor came up to her in tears, saying, "That's not what a female bodybuilder should look like!" Muscle & Fitness' contest coverage estimated Baxter gained 8 pounds of muscle, an amazing amount back then for a 5-3 female bodybuilder. As a matter of fact, Baxter weighed in at 129. By modern standards, she would be a good-sized light heavyweight in a class competition. Back then, only
Carla Dunlap
Carla Dunlap-Kaan (born October 22, 1954) is a professional American female bodybuilding champion.
Early life and education
Dunlap was born in 1954, in Newark, New Jersey. She started competing in sports with gymnastics at age 10. She later c ...
rivaled Baxter's combination of size and definition. The Women's Physique Publication reported that the IFBB circulated a memo among the judges, admonishing them not to reward "uncontrolled muscularity." Baxter would finish eighth, but immediately gained a devoted legion of followers among fans and more than a few competitors.
Unlike many women then and now, Baxter was a complete bodybuilder. She boasted superior size in almost every bodypart. Though an H-frame with broad shoulders and hips with a thick waist, the kind of build perfect for powerlifting more so than bodybuilding, she simply gave herself a V-shape by building incredibly massive latissimus dorsi muscles and huge deltoids. Her legs would be admired for their tremendous mass and shape, although she sometimes had trouble getting them defined for contests. Standing next to Baxter onstage wasn't the desired position for many competitors. She would dominate an observer's eye and her completeness highlighted the weaknesses of those around her. In addition to her physique, she had a very 1980s-ish shock of big blond hair that also demanded attention and a certain middle-aged sex appeal now connected to so-called "cougars."
Baxter also understood that one of the things that drew bodybuilding fans to the sport/activity were the physiques of seemingly superhuman size, seeming to symbolize superhuman strength and will. Superhero comic books had been filled with bodybuilding ads since the 1960s. She figured women's bodybuilding fans were no different and she herself declared to Muscle & Fitness in 1983 "I want to be superwoman!" She made a wrestling video with her taking on another of bodybuilding's most muscular women, Pillow, and in an interview published posthumously by Flex Magazine, stated she liked it because they "looked like two superwomen fighting." In the just dawning age of common VCR usage, Baxter sold tapes of her wrestling Pillow or men. (Bodybuilding world gossip has it that Baxter was such a physical woman, she'd playfully put friends in leg scissors to see if they could escape or last before giving up).
Though judges continued to place her lower and lower at subsequent Olympias and Women's World Championships, Baxter continued to get bigger, denser and even more defined. In one of the posthumous interviews, she said, "The judges weren't the ones buying my videos" so she might as well keep pleasing herself and the fans. It's been theorized that fear of those videos reaching mainstream media and making women's bodybuilding, then struggling for mainstream acceptance much more than even today, something practiced by women the average person couldn't relate to at all also was behind the low contest placings that kept Baxter out of the mainstream. The low point for Baxter in this regard probably was the 1984 Ms. Olympia, when she wasn't placed in the top 15 during prejudging and, therefore, couldn't compete in the night show. Several competitors told Women's Physique World and other magazines they were shocked by this placing and felt bad for Kay, who was competing at 138-140 pounds by this point at a size that would be huge by standards of 10 years hence.
Still, her fans loved her with a devotion no other female bodybuilder could claim. She was voted "The Best Woman Bodybuilder in the World" by readers of the Women's Physique Publication, a mail-order only magazine whose readers and editors tended to favor the more heavily muscled bodybuilders, each year from 1982 to 1984. Women's Physique World, a color newsstand sister to WPP that began in 1984, featured her on their first Back Page (a shot of a female bodybuilder from the back) and made her the coverwoman of an issue that devoted a few articles to her. Strength Training for Beauty, a magazine aimed at bodybuilders and fans who appreciated both muscle and sexy attire/makeup, had Baxter in several issues.
In the first WPP announcing she had been voted "Best Bodybuilder in the World," Baxter wondered if bodybuilding needed to be split into two contests—a more mainstream-palatable level of bodybuilding and Ultimate Bodybuilding, which would reward high levels of denied size. Several years later, as fitness contests featuring muscular women less muscular than bodybuilders and doing routines that featured more dancing than look-at-my-muscles posing, Baxter seemed a prophet.
From 1982 to 1985, Baxter was the benchmark for hugely muscled female bodybuilders. The 1985 Worlds, however, was the last competition at which fans would marvel at the awesomeness of her physique while judges would buried her in the results. The latter still happened, not so much the former. The bar was moving in women's bodybuilding as bigger girls such as 5–7, 145-pound Deanna Panting, 5–4, 145-pound Hannie Van Aken and 5-5, 155-pound Peggy Ouwerling were taking the "Big Girl" baton from Kay, whose influence they often acknowledged.
"Someone had to stick her neck out for the cause of muscular women … and I've got no regrets about that... not one", she said. One of her catchphrases was "Get built without guilt".
Baxter died in a car crash in 1988 just as her career was moving towards
acting. The Women's Extravaganza, an event that featured a bodybuilding contest and a strength competition, was renamed for her in 1990. She was inducted into the
IFBB Hall of Fame The IFBB Hall of Fame was established in 1999 to honor outstanding athletes and officials in the sport of bodybuilding. There have been no inductees since 2011.
Induction years
1999
*Carla Dunlap
*Cory Everson
*John Grimek
* Lee Haney
* Rachel Mc ...
in 2001.
Contest history
*1979 US Women's Championship - 1st
*1980
NPC Nationals - 4th
*1980 NPC USA Championships - 4th
*1981 NPC Gold's Classic - 1st
*1981
World Games I - 5th (MW)
*1981
IFBB Grand Prix Montreal - 3rd
*1981
IFBB Pro World Championships - 2nd
*1982
IFBB Ms. Olympia - 8th
*1982
IFBB Pro World Championships - 9th
*1983
IFBB Ms. Olympia - 10th
*1983
IFBB Pro World Championships - 10th
*1984
IFBB Ms. Olympia - did not place
*1984
IFBB Pro World Championships - 14th
*1985
IFBB Ms. Olympia - 13th
*1985
IFBB Pro World Championships - 10th
*1986
IFBB Ms. International - 15th
*1986
IFBB Los Angeles Pro Championships - 9th
References
Baxter's entry on musclememory.comBaxter's death report via LA Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Kay
1945 births
1988 deaths
American female bodybuilders
Road incident deaths in California
People from Monroe County, Ohio
Professional bodybuilders
20th-century American women
20th-century American people