Wonder Woman; Autobiography by Elaine Doll-Dunn
Hi, I’m Elaine. I am privileged to live in the shadow of that great shrine of democracy—Mount Rushmore—on the plains and hills where Captain Dunbar danced with his wolf. I was born sixty-seven years ago in a small town in Nebraska and moved very shortly to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Wakpala, SD. I spent my elementary school years in a one-room country school five miles from our ranch, rode my buckskin pony to and from every day, and yes, it was uphill into the wind. (Have you ever been to South Dakota?)
The boundless prairie is a good place to get to know yourself; there I herded sheep, rounded up cattle, and baked in the South Dakota sun until I graduated from Buffalo High School and subsequently attended Black Hills Teacher’s College (Now Black Hills state University).
One year intensified instruction qualified me to teach, so the next year, at age eighteen, I rode my horse seventeen miles to teach all eight grades in a one-room school…that experience teaches delegation, organization, and serious punting. All appropriate skills in the real world. (OK, so I never did use how to get porcupine quills out of the kerosene stove where he/she had crawled in to get warm…rescued he/she, but every time the fan turned on we had to dodge quills. Unique PE class?)
Marriage to my childhood sweetheart, a local rodeo champion, was launched in France—where he was stationed in the Army—and terminated by his death four years later of cancer. A twenty-three year old widow with 3 and 7/9 babies under three, I determined then to somehow become “Dr. Doll” (my maiden name—nice ring, huh?) and have doggedly pursued that goal since 1961.
Along the way I married again, had three more children, divorced, and found running. I have since earned four degrees, and a reading specialist endorsement, run 105 marathons, climbed Devils Tower (look it up, you’ll be impressed), climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific, (sixty miles across Panama) to celebrate my sixtieth birthday, and fought cancer to a draw. Wrong—I won!
I have taught in the Spearfish school system for twenty-six years while concurrently teaching nights and weekends for South Dakota State University, Black Hills State University and The University of Mary. I started the cross-country running program for women at BHSU, and coached them for six years. I also coached the junior high program for two years.
During the summer, I administrate and instruct for an “At Risk” youth program involving four teachers and forty students. I taught Adult Basic Education for eight years and held classes in communication skills for the area bank and for a local gold mining company. I also teach and administrate an ESL program for the school system and for the mining company. I do consulting and inspirational speaking nation wide, and have presented at the international level in Toronto, Canada and Niehaus, Germany. My educational role for the last ten years is as middle school counselor, a rewarding and fulfilling career.
My research interests include anything regarding reading and the transescent child and my doctoral research is Assessing the Self-Efficacy of Women Who Begin Marathoning After the Age of Forty. (Fascinating! I research on the run. During a marathon I trot along beside anyone sporting the “dandelion” hair-do, ask pertinent questions, leave them my card, and we have on-line interviews!)
I am the former Mrs. South Dakota, (2000) and the Foster Grant model for South Dakota., the centerfold for the swimsuit edition of the Golden Times. (The AARP crowd!)
Age is just a number, right? I will soon celebrate my 11th wedding anniversary with my husband Jerry, also a marathon runner. We had a Mickey Mouse wedding courtesy of Disney World during the Disney World Marathon in 1995. I have completed my doctorate in psychology from California Coast University, and am enjoying, finally, being “Dr. Doll-Dunn.”