June 23: Wilma Rudolph and the Power of Perseverance

Wilma Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee, and grew up in a large family in the segregated South. As a child, she faced serious health challenges, including double pneumonia, scarlet fever, and polio. Polio weakened her left leg, and for several years she wore a leg brace. Doctors were uncertain whether she would walk normally again, but Rudolph’s family helped her through years of therapy and exercises. Her mother regularly took her for treatment, and her siblings helped massage her leg at home.