She’s No Shrinking Violet in These Parts

ST. LOUIS â€”  She walked this very street, leaving her apartment in the 5600 block of Waterman Avenue, crossing DeBaliviere and skipping over to Hamilton Elementary School.

Tracing the footsteps of one of this country’s sporting giants, this is where the magic all began. Today the library in Hamilton is named after St. Louis’ beloved Georgia Frontiere, the Super Bowl-bound owner of the Rams, the little girl who grew up to be a stirring role model for a whole new generation of kids.

“She sat in the same desks, walked the same halls, ate in the same lunchroom and showed us the corner she stood in because she talked too much,� said a proud Dr. Glenda Bryant, the school’s principal. “We had to have School Board approval to name the library after her because it’s usually not done for live people, but because of her image, they did.�

Dr. Bryant said not one parent in this wonderful tolerant city has complained about their youngster attending a library named after a woman who has been married seven times and given birth to two children out of wedlock.

“Oh, my gosh, I didn’t know that,� she said. “I knew she was a chorus girl, but really I had never heard about her until she bought the Rams. I can tell you this, though, she’s the soul of kindness.�

Her record indicates she is very giving of herself.

“She’s always been popular with us,� said John Limbacher, vice president of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. “She performed for us, it was a wonderful evening--people still talk about it.�

Some were there in person to watch Mark McGwire hit his 62nd home run, others were there to watch Georgia perform. Some people have all the luck.

Everyone loves a winner, and you can say this about Frontiere now, she’s a real winner. All of St. Louis finds her enchanting. The crowd at Tony’s, one of the city’s best-known restaurants, came to its feet Saturday night to applaud her as she arrived for dinner.

“It was quite neat,� said Vincent Bommarito, the owner of the restaurant. “In 50 years we’ve had that happen only two or three times. I remember once when Frank Sinatra was here.�

It will take a minute . . . but no, a check of the list of husbands and there’s no Sinatra on it.

“We’ve a had a pretty sophisticated crowd, so it was something to see them all come together like that,� Bommarito said. “She raised her arms and blew kisses, and there were tears in her eyes.�

That’s hell on makeup, of course, but according to all reports she hung in there all the way through dessert. That’s the Madame.

“She stands for the entire game perched on a pair of dainty little pumps,� wrote St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Kathleen Nelson. Al Davis can’t do that.

They grow them hardy in these parts, and this is where little Violet Francis Irwin made her first appearance--in St. Mary’s Hospital.

Of course those “We’re takin’ Violet to Georgia� T-shirts would have been tough to sell, but fortunately, according to published reports, some unknown person had the foresight three years after the little darling was born in 1927 to scratch out “Violet Francis� on the birth certificate on file in Jefferson City, Mo., and scribble in, “Georgia Lee.�

One’s first guess would have been Ram President John Shaw, the guy who had Georgia’s ear in moving the Rams out of California, altering that birth certificate. But everyone knows Georgia was born long before Shaw.

But make no mistake, Georgia Lee (a Marine)-Geiger-Johnson-Hayes-Wyler-Rosenbloom-Frontiere is a household name here. She’s St. Louis’ favorite daughter, one of the city’s most famous sports figures to be born here along with Yogi Berra, leaving open the question why is it so hard to understand what sports figures born in St. Louis have to say?

That’s the biggest question of the week going into Super Bowl XXXIV. Will the Rams let Georgia speak and reveal what the astrological charts have to say about the team’s chances of winning?

She declined to talk with The Los Angeles Times when requested, but the St. Louis newspaper’s No. 1 sports columnist makes it a habit now of dining with her every Thursday night. Some people get all the breaks.

“She’s a lovely lady,� Bommarito said. “I have relatives in L.A., so I know about her reputation, but she’s worked pretty hard on her image here, and while she’s become a jillionaire doing it, she’s not arrogant. I mean she’ll bring her whole entourage in here with her when she comes for dinner.�

Not to nit-pick, but everyone knows she goes nowhere without her entourage. But she is feeling good about herself these days. People said they never saw her looking happier than standing there in the middle of all those football players on the postgame platform after beating Tampa Bay on Sunday.

“The Rams have become a first-class organization . . . it starts at the top with owner Georgia Frontiere,� wrote John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, undoubtedly auditioning to become a writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He just has to be available for dinner Thursday nights.

These are the best of times in St. Louis, and after the Rams had defeated the Buccaneers, Ray Charles’ rich voice was piped into the Trans World Dome singing, “Georgia on My Mind.� It had Violet Francis smiling.

They love her here. None of the local newspapers have made any effort to locate the Marine she married at age 15, before having the marriage annulled. A picture of her standing on the Ram sideline during Sunday’s game popped up on the JumboTron scoreboard, and from what people could see of her, they did not boo.

She’s the most popular girl in town.

Now she has been invited to be the featured performer on the local Variety Club Telethon March 5 to sing her soprano rendition of “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.� It goes without saying, Shaw will probably have to whisper the lyrics into her ear, but by then the Rams will have won the Super Bowl, and if they named a road well-traveled here in honor of McGwire, what will they do for Violet Francis?