RIP NANCY WAKE (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011)
Ms Wake, who has died in London just before her 99th birthday, was a New Zealander brought up in Australia. She became a nurse, a journalist who interviewed Adolf Hitler, a wealthy French socialite, a British agent and a French resistance leader. She led 7,000 guerrilla fighters in battles against the Nazis in the northern Auvergne, just before the D-Day landings in 1944. On one occasion, she strangled an SS sentry with her bare hands. On another, she cycled 500 miles to replace lost codes. In June 1944, she led her fighters in an attack on the Gestapo headquarters at Montlucon in central France.
Work began earlier this month on a feature film about Nancy Wake’s life. Ms Wake, one of the models for Sebastian Faulks’ fictional heroine, Charlotte Gray, had mixed feelings about previous cinematic efforts to portray her wartime exploits, including a TV mini-series made in 1987.
“It was well-acted but in parts it was extremely stupid,” she said. “At one stage they had me cooking eggs and bacon to feed the men. For goodness’ sake, did the Allies parachute me into France to fry eggs and bacon for the men? There wasn’t an egg to be had for love nor money. Even if there had been why would I be frying it? I had men to do that sort of thing.”
Ms Wake was also furious the TV series suggested she had had a love affair with one of her fellow fighters. She was too busy killing Nazis for amorous entanglements, she said.
Even before she escaped to Britain, through Spain, in 1943 to train as a guerrilla leader, Nancy had been top of the Gestapo’s French “wanted” list. With her husband, she ran a resistance network which helped to smuggle Jews and allied airmen out of the country.
Nancy recalled later in life that her parachute had snagged in a tree. The French resistance fighter who freed her said he wished all trees bore “such beautiful fruit”. Nancy retorted: “Don’t give me that French shit.”
<3 what a bad ass <3
![thedailywhat:
We Should All Be So Amazing of the Day: Sensei Keiko Fukuda, the last surviving student of Judo founder Kanō Jigorō, has officially been promoted to the rank of 10th dan — the highest black-belt degree in her sport — becoming the first woman to reach the rank, and only the sixteenth person to achieve it since the martial art was founded in 1882.
Oh, and did I mention Fukuda is 98 years old?
“All my life,” Fukuda, who started practicing judo in 1935, said, “this has been my dream.”
Fukuda is no stranger to breaking barriers. In 1972, following a letter campaign to reverse the longstanding rule prohibiting women from rising above 5th dan (which kept her at the same level for nearly two decades), she became the first woman promoted to 6th dan.
And she’s not done yet: Fukuda continues to teach judo three times a week at a women’s dojo in Noe Valley.
[sfgate / shine.]
SHE LOOKS LIKE SHE’S 60.
Also, I think one of the oldest living practitioners of Tai-Chi is this ancient gnarly looking old lady who lives in the mountains of China. She treks 10 goddamn kilometers to get her own (presumably goddamn good) rice.
None of that wax-on wax-off bullshit for her.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpoy01Trnp1qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
