Page 2 March 4, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Obituaries
Marie Magdaleno
May 8 1921 - February 12, 2021
Marie D. Magdaleno passed
away peacefully at home surrounded
by her children on Friday,
February 12. Marie was born May
8, 1921 in Pocatello, Idaho to Lucy
and Elias Tapia Sr. and she was the
eldest of five siblings. After Marie’s
family moved to California
she attended George Washington
High School in Los Angeles and
later Pepperdine University where
she studied accounting. Marie
joined the Women’s Army Corps (WACS) in
1943 and served for one year. Marie represented
the importance of women during wartime, pride
in country, and working hard for a common
goal. Marie pursued a 30+ year career with
the Southern California Gas Company as supervisor
for accounting and she also worked
seasonally for H&R Block for 25 years. She
was a lifetime member of the American Legion
and, among other positions within the organization,
she also served a term as Los Angeles
County Commander. Marie was
a warm and generous person
and was a caretaker of all:
family, friends, and neighbors.
She openly practiced “love thy
neighbor as you love thy self”.
She attended American Martyrs
Parish in Manhattan Beach.
Marie spoke up for her beliefs,
and taught her children, grandchildren,
great- grandchildren,
and great- great- grandchildren
to act with conviction, loyalty, and poise.
Marie was preceded in death by her loving
husband Manuel of 48 years, her parents and
siblings. She is survived by her children Andrea
Hartzler, Timothy Magdaleno, and Lisa
Henry, and her grandchildren Kate, Michael,
Joshua, Daniel and Sarah, in addition to many
great- and great- great- grandchildren. In lieu
of flowers, a tree planted in her memory (A
Living Tribute.org) is suggested. Marie was
a lover of our National Parks.
El Segundo’s Richard Ewell:
Figure Skating Trailblazer
By Duane Plank
When Richard Ewell was approached about
consenting to an interview with an El Segundo
Herald scribe that could lead to a possible
profile for the paper, he blurted out just one
incredulous word: “What?”
But after he recovered from his initial shock,
the trailblazing figure skater graciously consented
to a phone interview, in which Ewell, the
first African American to win a U.S. national
title in singles and pairs figure skating, spoke
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of the road tackled to achieve his triumphs on
the ice in national competitions, as well as the
time spent as a professional skater working for
the Ice Capades franchise in the 1970’s and
80’s, and later with the European tour troupe
of Holiday on Ice.
Ewell, who was born in 1949, was raised in
the Los Angeles area. He said that he started on
the figure skating pathway with a nudge from his
parents from the Midwest. Ewell said that he
and his sister Lynn would gripe about the alleged
winter cold in the air in Los Angeles winters and
try to use the mild weather as an excuse to crawl
back under their bed covers and skip school.
But Ewell’s parents, who had experienced
actual cold weather in Missouri, decided that they
would expose their kids to what the real cold
felt like and took them one day to the Polar
Palace ice rink in Hollywood, which eventually
burned down in 1963. Surprisingly, the Ewell
kids, who had been complaining about the cold,
took to the freezing confines of the Polar Palace.
“We loved it,” Ewell said while relating
that his Mom had taken him and his sister to
performances by the Ice Capades and Holiday
on Ice when those shows came to town. Later
in his career, when Ewell was drawing a paycheck
from the now-defunct Ice Capades, he
performed at the old L.A. Sports Arena with the
Ice Capades three times—revisiting the sheet
of ice where he used to watch performances
from the stands, stoking his interest in pursuing
a skating career. “That was kind of spooky,”
he said, speaking of getting paid to perform
in his hometown.
About two weeks before the Polar Palace
fire, Ewell and family had visited the rink and
were treated to a group lesson from renowned
skating coach Mabel Fairbanks, who had paved
the way for minorities to receive opportunities
to participate in the pursuit of ice skating.
Fairbanks was later elected to the U.S. Figure
Skating Hall of Fame.
Once the Polar Palace burned down, LA-area
skating coaches and budding skaters scrambled
to find a new venue to sharpen their skating
chops. Ewell said that he took a respite from
skating for a bit, but then discovered the Culver
Ice Arena. When the family checked-out the
Culver City facility, they were happy to see
Fairbanks gliding out on the ice, resuming her
teaching duties. Ewell said he started taking
lessons again.
Ewell was under the coaching tutelage of
Fairbanks for about seven and a half years.
He started progressing through the local figure
skating championship tiers. “It was OK, and
I was moderately successful,” he said. Unbelievably,
he said, he won his first foray into
the novice level tier back in Nov. of 1966. “I
was shocked,” he said. Ewell began climbing
the figure skating competition ladder with
some success.
He then moved up to the junior level,
which Ewell said, was initially challenging.
He struggled with the required compulsory
figures mandatory in skating competitions,
but excelled in the “jumping and spinning”
movements that were part of the competition’s
free-skate program.
See Richard Ewell, page 6
“Those we love and lose are always connected
by heartstrings into infinity.”
– E.A. Bucchianeri
Willard E.W. Krick
Willard E.W. Krick passed away
peacefully on Monday, January
25, 2021, surrounded by his family
in Fort Collins, Colorado after
a long battle with Parkinson’s
Disease and heart complications.
Willard had a distinguished career
as a manufacturing engineer in
the aerospace industry for almost
40 years.
Willard was a passionate runner.
He holds the distinction of
being a “Legacy Runner” with
the Los Angeles Marathon,
having completed the course
26 times consecutively before
his last marathon in 2012. He
is survived by his loving wife
of 63 years Emma Jean Krick,
and by many others in Illinois,
California, and Colorado.
There will be no formal services
held. Please donate to parkinsonalliance.
org in his name. •