By Peter Lazenby
A SPORTING champion who won the admiration of tens of thousands of Leeds people has died.
Doris Storey, an east Leeds tailoring worker who became a world champion swimmer, died peacefully in the early hours of yesterday morning. She was 85.
Her death came just days after she had been honoured in her absence in Australia where her picture has been hung in the "Hall of Fame" at Sydney Olympic swimming pool where she won two gold medals in the Empire Games of 1938.
Photographs were taken there by family friend Norman Harding, who was determined the swimmer's achievements were recognised.
Mr Harding and his wife Pauline were welcomed by the Mayor of North Sydney, Genia McCaffery and a report of the event appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post on Thursday.
Doris's son Ron Quarmby took a copy of the paper to show his mother in the Allerton Bywater nursing home where she has lived in poor health for some years.
"We spread the paper in front of her and she opened her eyes," said Mr Quarmby. A few hours later she died.
Doris Storey was born on December 21 1919, the daughter of a shopkeeper in York Road.
She became a machinist at Burton's factory in Hudson Road, though from childhood, swimming was her passion.
Doris was a member of East Leeds Swimming Club, training early in the morning before she began her shift at the factory. By the time she was 17 she had been selected to take part in the Berlin Olympics.
Thousands
She was fastest in the heats in Berlin, making her favourite to win a gold medal in the 200m breast stroke. But before the race she fell and injured her arm. She still competed, and led in the early stages, but could not overcome the effects of the injury and came in sixth.
Two years later, still working in tailoring, she was selected to take part in the Empire Games in Sydney.
The round-the-world journey was momentous for Doris. Apart from Berlin games the furthest distance she had been from her Leeds home was to Scarborough.
But once there she won two gold medals, one for the 220-yard breast-stroke, the other for the women's relay.
Her return to Leeds was marked by the turn-out of tens of thousands of ordinary people to welcome her. They packed York Road to cheer the working class girl who had reached the pinnacle of sporting fame. She was just 19.
Her achievement was all the more remarkable coming at a time when athletes at national level came almost invariably from wealthy backgrounds.
She continued her competitive swimming after Sydney, breaking the world record for the 200m breast-stroke.
Doris was a favourite for later Olympic Games but the war intervened, though she was still a record holder when the London Olympic games approached in 1948.
Family
She came second in trials in Scarborough, and should have made the team. But by then Doris was married and had a two-year-old child, and the selectors rejected her, saying she had family commitments.
Doris later ran a fish and chip shop in East End Park in Leeds with her husband Norman Quarmby, who died 23 years ago.
Last year Doris donated a trophy to the Leeds Swimming Club.
Lord Mayor of Leeds Councillor Bill Hyde said today: "I'd like to offer my deepest sympathies to Doris Storey's family and friends. Doris was Leeds' first international swimming champion, and started a long tradition of success in the sport that saw the likes of Adrian Moorhouse and 15 other Olympians from Leeds swim to victory.
"We hope to ensure that a record of her achievement is recognised within the new Swimming and Diving Centre at South Leeds Stadium, which is due to open in 2007."

Tributes to, or memories of, Doris Storey can be sent to Peter Lazenby by e-mail to peter.lazenby@ypn.co.uk or by post to Peter Lazenby, Newsroom, Yorkshire Evening Post, Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 1RF.