4-time Iditarod champ Susan Butcher dies

[Bunny]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060806/ap_on_sp_ot/obit_butcher_9




<snip>
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher, who in 1986 became the race's second female winner and brought increased national attention to its grueling competition, has died. She was 51.

Butcher died Saturday in a Seattle hospital of a reoccurrence of leukemia after a recent stem-cell transplant, her doctor said.

She dominated the 1,100-mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome in the late 1980s. Her other victories came in 1987, '88 and '90, and she finished in the top four through 1993.

"What she did is brought this race to an audience that had never been aware of it before simply because of her personality," Iditarod spokesman Chas St. George said.
<snip>


She was a pretty cool person. RIP.

[jmowreader]

1. I hate to inject politics into sadness

In this case, I must.

I expect the Internets to be full of "Thank God for pResident Bush saving the precious unborn children from the horrors of stem cell research, when it doesn't even work anyway."

I am sad for Susan Butcher's family.

[scarlet_owl]

2. Rest in Peace, Susan.

She was one of my childhood heroes. :cry: