Juanita Warmerdam, Pole Vault Legend's Widow, Dies

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By Jim Steinberg / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Thursday, February 16, 2006, 5:33 AM)

[list][color=blue]Juanita Anderson grew up in Laton, across the Kings River from the boy who would become her husband, Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam, a Fresno pole-vault legend and track coach.

Mrs. Warmerdam died Tuesday. She was 86.

"Nita" and Dutch Warmerdam became more than an athletic team.

Dutch Warmerdam, who died in November 2001, became a world renowned athlete by breaking the 15-foot pole-vault barrier. He later coached track and field at what then was Fresno State College.

Mrs. Warmerdam always supported him, relatives and friends say, but she did more. She worked constantly with athletes. She helped organize and run the West Coast Relays track meet in Fresno. She typed results of the competition.

Meanwhile, the Warmerdams were raising five children.

Dutch Warmerdam broke the world pole-vault record in April 1940 and was the first to clear 15 feet, says a son, Barry Warmerdam. Dutch Warmerdam and Juanita Anderson married four months later.

"She was very, very supportive of everything he did," Barry Warmerdam recalls. "She was a wife and homemaker. She raised the children. She traveled the world with him. That's the way her life went."

Mrs. Warmerdam worked on her husband's track program at what would become California State University, Fresno. She made initial contacts with athletes, then followed with phone calls to arrange competition for the West Coast Relays as it became a nationally recognized event.

Beyond all that, Barry Warmerdam says, Mrs. Warmerdam "taught us how to live right, with religion. She said to figure what's right and do it. Christianity was her basis for life."

Mrs. Warmerdam taught more practical lessons as well, Barry Warmerdam says: Sit straight. Eat with your mouth closed. Walk with toes straight ahead.

Maxine Matthews, a close friend, met Mrs. Warmerdam through Women's Aglow, a Christian women's group. Over the years, Mrs. Warmerdam served as president and as secretary. She counseled people, prepared and dispatched mailings.

"This was something she did outside Dad's world," Barry Warmerdam says.

Matthews calls Mrs. Warmerdam her best friend and says they became so close â€â€