By Lois Elfman
Atoy Wilson said his mother, Thelma, first heard about skating coach Mabel Fairbanks through another member of a social group to which she belonged. “There’s a Black lady teaching at the fabled Polar Palace,” he recalled his mother telling him.
As Atoy advanced in the sport (he became the first Black skater to win a U.S. title, earning the novice crown in 1966), Thelma and Fairbanks would engage in long conversations about what it would mean for him to progress in the sport. He was just a boy at the time, but as he matured, he realized that Fairbanks was grooming his mother to be a great skating mom.
After Atoy left competitive skating and joined the professional world, Thelma continued to be involved in competitive skating. In time, she became a great friend and mentor to another skating mom, Cleo Babilonia, mother of Tai Babilonia. They were introduced by a judge at the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club.
“We hit it off, just a wonderful lady,” Cleo said. “The thing I remember and reflect on so much now is I’m a night person and apparently she was, too. She would call me and we would talk and talk. Those talks were about getting me ready for something and that something was figure skating in a competitive atmosphere.
“It wasn’t like preaching to you, like ‘I’ve been here and I know it all. First of all, she was a brilliant lady and very generous with her knowledge. I was like a sponge because I love people and that kind of personality. She would pass on her experiences to me. Not telling me what to do, but letting me know if you come into this world — like any competitive world —you’ve got to have your feet solidly on the ground and be your own person.”
Cleo said Thelma never spoke negatively. They remained friends until Thelma passed away in 1994. At the funeral service, it was a sad occasion, but everyone had something good or funny to say.
“Everybody loved her because there was so much to love,” Cleo said.
Thelma loved the sport and the people she met. From the early 1980s on, one of Thelma’s closest friends in skating was Tony Tantillo. He recalled her telling him that when the Los Angeles FSC hosted the 1972 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, she was head of hospitality.
They met at the 1982 World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, and were seated next to each other at the 1983 Worlds in Helsinki, Finland.
“Thelma was a purist in terms of her love of skating,” Tantillo said. “She was fiercely patriotic about American skaters. She was an incredibly lovely person who I was gratified that she touched my life.”
He described a decidedly “Thelma” moment in 1983 when Scott Hamilton skated his short program to “Flight of the Bumble Bee.”
“Our seats were literally next to the ISU,” Tantillo said. “He finished and she said, ‘He just stung them!’”
A special gift that Tantillo gave Thelma was a pin he designed and had made that depicted a skating boot with a blade on the bottom. Within the boot was a 6.0 and the point was a diamond. Thelma left instructions upon her death that the pin be returned to Tantillo and he was to donate it to the World Figure Skating Museum, which he did.
“That was her wish,” Tantillo said.
