An Olympic torch resides in local history museum

The Poplar Bluff Museum tell many unknown tales of our community. I want to tell you some of those hidden tales found within the museum walls.

The 1984 Olympics were held in Los Angeles, California. Before every game, the Olympic flame is carried by a torch from Mt. Olympus in Greece to the Olympic stadium of the host nation. As the torch carried the flame in relays across America, one of its legs went through southern Missouri. That torch ended up in the possession of George and Kathy Jarboe.

In 1985, Sam Giambelluca and Bill Chronister organized the first Mid-South Senior Olympics. The Jarboes allowed the torch to be used to open the 1985 games in Poplar Bluff. The torch was carried by Olympic athlete Helen Stephens, winner of two gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Ms. Stephens had also won 14 AAU National titles and never had been beaten in amateur competitions. She was the first woman inducted in the Missouri Track Hall of Fame and elected to the United States Track and Field Hall of Fame. Ms. Stephens was the Outstanding Woman Athlete of 1936 and her participation certainly honored the opening of the Poplar Bluff Mid-South Senior Olympic Games.

George and Kathy Jarboe donated the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Torch to the Poplar Bluff Museum. The torch is on display in the Poplar Bluff Sports Hall of Fame along with Helen Stephens’ biography. The museum is handicap accessible and open free of charge from 1-4 p.m. Sunday at 1010 Main St. Tell them Mike sent you.

Mike Shane is a veteran, Poplar Bluff resident and board member for the Poplar Bluff Museum.