August 4, 2004
80-year-old sure-footed water-skier
Claire Nixon celebrates birthday every year by slalom water-skiing around lake
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Eight decades? So who's counting?
Certainly not Claire Nixon, a city resident whose energy, vitality and overall enthusiasm for life belie her 80 years.
Tanned and muscular with a mane of long white hair, the lifelong athlete celebrated the big 8-0 last month. The morning before a large birthday celebration in her honor, Nixon continued her 40-year tradition of water-skiing on her birthday.
The avid downhill skier was introduced to water-skiing in 1964 by some friends and has been zooming around lakes every summer since. Though this summer's cooler weather has limited her excursions (so far) to a handful of times, she made sure to keep her birthday record intact.
"They throw me in the water and see if I can still do it," said Nixon, with her trademark good humor.
In keeping with her athletic heritage, Nixon is a master of deepwater, two foot slalom starts - no docks or ski dropping for her.
"I'm an old lady, I'm into speed a little bit," she said.
Sandy Blumenfeld, a family friend for decades, termed Nixon a 'great lady.'
"She's amazing and has always been that way," said Blumenfeld, who downhill skied and worked area slopes in the 1960s during high school. "Most of the people I've known, they love to water-ski, ski or sail and Claire did all three."
"She's been an inspiration all along and at 80, she looks great," he added.
A mother of four and grandmother of ten, Nixon grew up in Tawas City, where her father worked as a vice president of Detroit and Mackinaw Railroad. Growing up during the Great Depression, her family was relatively sheltered from its effects because of her father's steady job. She completed a degree in social work at Marygrove College in 1946 and worked for Catholic Charities in Bay City before her marriage.
She married her husband, Donald, a native of Grand Traverse County, in 1949 in Bay City and the young couple settled in Traverse City. Nixon raised her four children and continues to be active in the community; her husband died in 2001 after 52 years of marriage.
Growing up with three older brothers, Nixon was always involved in their sports. She recalled that in the winter, ice boating on Tawas Bay was the big thing.
"I was one of the weights [on the boat] and we were all a bunch of nutcases over there," she recalled of their daring, high-speed exploits on ice.
Nixon remembered skiing at the first ski resort in the state, Silver Valley, and also skied with Gary Cooper and family while on a trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, in the late 1940s.
Nowadays, she and a group of women friends hit the slopes multiple times a week throughout the winter.
"I ski with an old crowd, we call ourselves the girls with the grandma faces," said Nixon. "I'm so old I ski free everywhere - once you're 70 you ski for free - and my favorite spot is Boyne Mountain."
They meet at Tom's East Bay and car pool to one of the resorts for a day of fun, no matter the weather.
"We go out when a lot of people don't want to be on the road, when the schools are closed," Nixon said. "I like to refer to our particular group as hard-core skiers."
While she can downhill ski all day without batting an eye, Nixon noted that she found water-skiing more physically taxing.
"Water-skiing is not like downhill skiing, I can do that the whole day and not get tired," she said. "But with water-skiing I get more tired and at the beginning of that season, it is more tricky to get out there."
Nixon is determined to keep her birthday record for water-skiing and her winter hobby of downhill skiing for as many more years as possible.
"I always tell all my friends I'm just going to ski into the sunset," she said. "I've lived a charmed life, I honestly believe I have."