Hawkins, Mary Ann (1919 – 1993)

Eye-catching surfer from Costa Mesa, California; winner of the Pacific Coast Women's Surfboard Championships in 1938, 1939, and 1940. Hawkins had "the figure and looks of a movie star," surf journalist Jeff Duclos wrote in 1999, and was "grace personified in the water." Hawkins was born (1919) and raised in Pasadena, began swimming at age nine, and at 17 was the Amateur Athletic Union 500-meter freestyle champion. The Hawkins family moved to Costa Mesa in 1934, primarily so that Mary Ann coul...