Rhoda
Rhoda Blake
d. November 3, 2015
The First Lady of Taos Ski Valley and Ski Pioneer, Rhoda Blake died November 3, 2015 after a brief illness.
Born in London on April 8, 1918, she was adopted by Herbert and Irma Limburg of NYC when she was three. She attended the Dalton School, Bryn Mawr College, studied dance under Isadora Duncan, discovered how detrimental a Park Avenue environment was to her spirit of adventure and yearned for a way to escape it. She, along with her husband, Ernest, did manage the great escape.
They met on a ski trip to Vermont. They married in 1942 and almost got divorced during their Sun Valley honey moon. “Ernest was a much, much better skier than I…but an impatient one.”
Rhoda encouraged Ernest to follow his dream about starting his own ski area. “She was more than a catalyst. Pops would not have defied convention by founding a ski resort, but her feeling was if that’s what you want to do, then let’s do it,” says Wendy. Rhoda always said their roles were reversed because he did the PR and letter writing while she mounted bindings on rental skis, ran the ski and rental shops, and pitched in on ski school and ski patrol duties. What she enjoyed most was designing ski runs. She liked that even better when she could whiz by marking trees with spray paint instead of stopping to mark each one with surveyor’s tape. What she didn’t enjoy were the housekeeping chores at the (old) Rio Hondo Lodge and cooking for the construction crews. “Way too many hot dogs and sauerkraut.”
All of it was a far cry from her highly cultured upbringing, but it suited her so much better than Park Avenue, especially in the crazy, higgledy piggledy early days, but in 1955, the Rocky Mountain ski business needed women like her. “Women unafraid of risk, hard work and hard lives in the hinterland. Roma McCoy of California, Edna Dercum of Colorado and Rhoda Blake of New Mexico were such women. They knew skiing before it became convenient—when it was freer and wilder. When it was from the heart. They helped make it that way, bringing grace and spirit to the mountain ventures of their husbands. Their pioneering lives illuminate the early spirit of skiing.” SKI article by Susan Vreeland, December 1989.
Besides making sparks fly with her spirit, her skiing legacy, feistiness, humor, stamina, healthy lungs (really!), she will be remembered for her children, Mickey (Ann), daughter, Wendy Stagg (Chris), Peter, thirteen grandchildren, eight great grandchildren, three generations of TSV fans, and Baxter.
To celebrate Rhoda, think of her on your next perfect ski day, execute a clever practical joke, dare to break a rule, be kind to animals, toast her with a gin Martini, make sparks fly, or blow a smoke ring heavenward. Godspeed. In lieu of flowers, a Memorial Fund has been set up at the Taos Community Foundation, www.taoscf.org. The family of Rhoda Blake has entrusted their loved one to DeVargas Funeral Home & Crematory of the Española Valley.
Born in London on April 8, 1918, she was adopted by Herbert and Irma Limburg of NYC when she was three. She attended the Dalton School, Bryn Mawr College, studied dance under Isadora Duncan, discovered how detrimental a Park Avenue environment was to her spirit of adventure and yearned for a way to escape it. She, along with her husband, Ernest, did manage the great escape.
They met on a ski trip to Vermont. They married in 1942 and almost got divorced during their Sun Valley honey moon. “Ernest was a much, much better skier than I…but an impatient one.”
Rhoda encouraged Ernest to follow his dream about starting his own ski area. “She was more than a catalyst. Pops would not have defied convention by founding a ski resort, but her feeling was if that’s what you want to do, then let’s do it,” says Wendy. Rhoda always said their roles were reversed because he did the PR and letter writing while she mounted bindings on rental skis, ran the ski and rental shops, and pitched in on ski school and ski patrol duties. What she enjoyed most was designing ski runs. She liked that even better when she could whiz by marking trees with spray paint instead of stopping to mark each one with surveyor’s tape. What she didn’t enjoy were the housekeeping chores at the (old) Rio Hondo Lodge and cooking for the construction crews. “Way too many hot dogs and sauerkraut.”
All of it was a far cry from her highly cultured upbringing, but it suited her so much better than Park Avenue, especially in the crazy, higgledy piggledy early days, but in 1955, the Rocky Mountain ski business needed women like her. “Women unafraid of risk, hard work and hard lives in the hinterland. Roma McCoy of California, Edna Dercum of Colorado and Rhoda Blake of New Mexico were such women. They knew skiing before it became convenient—when it was freer and wilder. When it was from the heart. They helped make it that way, bringing grace and spirit to the mountain ventures of their husbands. Their pioneering lives illuminate the early spirit of skiing.” SKI article by Susan Vreeland, December 1989.
Besides making sparks fly with her spirit, her skiing legacy, feistiness, humor, stamina, healthy lungs (really!), she will be remembered for her children, Mickey (Ann), daughter, Wendy Stagg (Chris), Peter, thirteen grandchildren, eight great grandchildren, three generations of TSV fans, and Baxter.
To celebrate Rhoda, think of her on your next perfect ski day, execute a clever practical joke, dare to break a rule, be kind to animals, toast her with a gin Martini, make sparks fly, or blow a smoke ring heavenward. Godspeed. In lieu of flowers, a Memorial Fund has been set up at the Taos Community Foundation, www.taoscf.org. The family of Rhoda Blake has entrusted their loved one to DeVargas Funeral Home & Crematory of the Española Valley.
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