Minnie “Johnnie” Belshe Passes Away

SWIMINFO recently learned of the passing of Minnie
"Johnnie" Belshe on Feb. 1, at the age of 93.

Johnnie Belshe was not only special to her family, she played an important part in the swimming community and in many other people’s lives.

Johnnie and her late husband, Gene, began the Huntington Beach Swim Club in 1946 with only a small group of local swimmers. Within a year’s time its membership grew to over fifty. Johnnie competed in and won many Southern California Championships in the late forties and fifties.

She won the High Point trophy in 1972 for her age group in what was then the National Masters Championship of the Amateur Athletic Union, now the United States Masters Swimming.

Johnnie continued to coach and teach swimming until the age of ninety-one. She passed away on February 1, 2001 shortly after suffering a massive stroke.

The Huntington Beach Swim Club continues today with a small number of members, now run by her son, Buddy Belshe, a Master Swimmer himself.

The Belshe family is looking to establishing a scholarship fund in Johnnie’s name in the near future to help young people to learn to swim.

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