In 1956 Nancy Jane Ramey, a 16-year-old swimmer who grew up in the Mercer Island neighborhood of Seattle, competed in the Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, where she won a silver medal in the 100 meter butterfly event. During the games 40 Hungarian athletes defected to the United States after Soviet forces invaded Hungary in response to a populist uprising. Another swimmer at the games, Zsuszu (“Susanna," “Suzie,” “Susie”) Ordogh, also 16, was among the defectors. Nancy invited Suzie to Seattle, where in 1962, she became a naturalized citizen. In 1962 Ordogh also graduated from Seattle University with a degree in chemical Engineering. Three years later she married William D. "Dan" Zimsen, a Tacoma man. Their daughter, Rosie (Zimsen) Sheppard, was state champion swimmer in high school, and in 2006, was inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

In this image Nancy (left) prepares to race fellow swimmer Suzie (center) as Raymond Earl "Ray" Daughters (1895-1967), longtime coach at Seattle's Washington Athletic Club (WAC) and coach of the 1956 US Olympic Team, holds the starting gun. Ramey continued to earn medals in the following years, and set two world records in 1958. Ramey later graduated from the University of Washington, and earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin. After moving to Alaska, Nancy and her husband Jim Lethcoe established an adventure-tourism company, a publishing company, and became activists for environmental causes.

Written on negative: Nancy Ramey Suzie Ordogh Ray Daughters

Caption information source: The Seattle Times: December 22, 1956, p. 2; December 26, 1956, p. 33.
Caption information source: "MI Olympic swimmer still inspires," Mercer Island Reporter, August 6, 2008, section: News.
Caption information source: https://swimmingcoach.org/about/hof/daughters-ray
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff.