Beloved Mother, Champion And Virtuosa: The Yvonne Sherman Tutt Story

Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive

"Skating really should be an interpretation of music - almost ballet on ice... Rhythm, whether played from a musical score or expertly cut into ice with steel blades, gives satisfaction to performer and audience." - Yvonne Sherman, "Family Circle" magazine, 1951

"You must as well be yourself. After all, who else are you?" - Yvonne Sherman, February 5, 1950, "Albany, NY Times-Union"

Born May 3, 1930, in New York City, Yvonne Claire Sherman was the daughter of Swiss immigrants Walter and Claire Sherman. She grew up in a garden apartment on 79th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens with her older sister Margaret and younger brother Edward. Her parents met while ice skating in Switzerland and her father, a consulting engineer for a machinery firm, was a member of the Skating Club of New York.

Arthur Vaughn, Yvonne Sherman, Jane Vaughn and William Grimditch in 1939. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Yvonne's first love wasn't skating... it was playing the piano. At the age of seven, she made her debut as a concert pianist at Steinway Hall. In an interview in "Family Circle" magazine in 1951, she explained, "Skating came into my life as an antidote for something few parents have to worry about - too much piano playing by a six-year-old. I started taking piano lessons when I was four and I loved it - too much for my own good, according to my parents. They decided ice skating might be a good way to get me away from that too-enthralling keyboard. They took me to the Junior Skating Club atop New York's Madison Square Garden, where I was introduced to the famous skating coach and instructor Katie Schmidt. It was a red-letter day for me, if not for her. That day I tottered out onto the ice and spotted another youngster about my age skillfully cutting figures with what I thought to be astounding perfection. 'If she can do it, so can I,' I decided. 'And better,' I promised myself right then and there. Little Joan Coffman and I became fast friends and furious competitors from that day on and the following year we both were invited to skate in the children's number at the ice carnival given by the Skating Club of New York. 'Little Joan Coffman' and Yvonne's performance at Madison Square Garden in the Skating Club of New York's benefit for the Bellevue Hospital Social Relief Service was a huge hit. Yvonne portrayed Hansel; Joan was Gretel. They skated to the nursery rhyme "There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe". Quoted in the March 26, 1938 issue of "The New York Sun", her coach Katie Schmidt remarked, "She is a genius. She gives concert piano recitals, playing difficult pieces by Mozart and Schubert and Bach. She will grow up to be an accomplished skater."

Shortly after her 'grand debut on the ice, Yvonne began working with Howard Nicholson. She made her competitive debut in 1939, winning the Eastern Figure Skating Championships over skaters nearly twice her age. Lincoln A. Werden raved, "Little Yvonne Sherman of New York added a distinction to this meet by the way she skated both days... The 8-year-old lady in red velvet went through a repertoire that would have done credit to skaters many years older. She skated with confidence and her spins and jumps were noteworthy." That year at her first U.S. Championships in St. Paul, she finished dead last in the junior women's event.

Yvonne was successful at both the Middle Atlantic and Eastern Championships in the early 1940s, but similarly failed to translate those successes into wins on the national stage. In 1941, for instance, she failed to make the cut for the free skate in a field of fourteen. By 1943, she had left Howard Nicholson to take from Pierre Brunet. 

Yvonne with her competitors at the 1945 U.S. Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Yvonne posing with medallists at the 1946 U.S. Championships

Yvonne finally had her big moment at the U.S. Championships in 1946, when she won the junior pairs title with Robert Swenning after finishing second the year before. In 1947, she claimed the U.S. junior women's title and was victorious in senior pairs, upsetting the favoured Kennedy Kids - Karol and Peter - who had finished second at the World Championships. 

In 1947, Yvonne also claimed medals in both singles and pairs at the North American Championships and graduated from the Professional Children's School, where she was president of her class. She earned the Greer-Robinson Memorial Scholarship for scholastic excellence for her academic achievements.

In December of 1947, a competition was held in Chicago to determine who would fill a spot on the 1948 Olympic team forfeited by Janette Ahrens, who'd retired after getting married. Yvonne, who had already qualified in pairs, bested Margaret Grant, Barbara Jones and four others to earn the singles berth.

Yvonne Sherman and Robert Swenning. Photo courtesy U.S. Olympic Committee Archives.

At the 1948 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, seventeen-year-old Yvonne was the only member of the U.S. figure skating team skating 'double duty' in both singles and pairs. Incredibly, with next to no international experience, she placed sixth in singles and fourth in pairs.

Yvonne Sherman and Robert Swenning. Top photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive.

At the World Championships that followed in Davos, Yvonne again made the top six in both disciplines. Interviewed by Patricia Shelley Bushman for her book "Indelible Tracings", Robert Swenning recalled, "On the day of the Olympics it was really snowing so I promptly went back to bed because I was sure it was cancelled. Then I got a phone call: 'Come on, it's clearing up.' Three-fourths of the pair teams competed in bright sunlight, and then it started to snow again. We were the last pair to skate; we were frozen and the judges were frozen. We wound up fourth because we couldn't hear our music and they couldn't see us. We went to Davos for the Worlds and the same thing happened. The other top skaters competed in the sunshine, and we wound up skating in a snowstorm and came in fifth." At the banquet following the event in Davos, she treated the skaters and judges to a pianoforte concerto at the Hotel Belvedere.

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

When Yvonne returned home from Europe, she competed in the U.S. Championships in Colorado Springs. Disappointing, she lost the women's title to Gretchen Merrill after leading in figures and finished second in pairs to the Kennedy Kids. A popular number she skated in exhibitions that season was an interpretive piece to Jules Massenet's "Méditation" from "Thaïs". She was one of the first skaters to interpret the famous piece on ice.

Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive

After the 1948 season, Yvonne decided to focus solely on singles skating and ended her partnership with Robert. That summer, she was crowned Potato Queen by the Adirondack Potato Growers Association. Her ballet classes at the Swoboda School of Ballet started causing people to pay attention to her free skating, even if she did have a reputation for being rather cautious. Dick Button described her thusly: "A tall, lissome girl, Yvonne's main asset on the ice was her grace. An interpretive but not an athletic performer, she excelled in school figures, back bend spins - and in unwittingly breaking the hearts of her male colleagues." 

Yvonne Sherman, Robert Swenning, Gretchen Merrill, Dick Button and Eileen Seigh. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

In 1949, Yvonne bested Gretchen Merrill at both the U.S. Championships and North American Championships, becoming the first U.S. woman to win the latter title since Maribel Vinson, who last took the title prior to World War II.

Photos courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive

At the 1949 World Championships in Paris, Yvonne claimed the silver medal in a four-three split over Jeannette Altwegg, who would go on to win the gold medal at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games in Oslo. Interestingly, the British judge had Yvonne first in the free skate at that event. 

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

Yvonne's successes in 1949 inspired Skating Club Of New York President David T. Layman Jr. to commission a bronze sculpture by artist Charles Keck called "Skating Girl", posed for by Yvonne. This piece was donated to the Metropolitan Museum Of Art for a time.

"Skating Girl" by Charles Keck

In 1950, Yvonne finished third at the World Championships in London, England, skating well but upstaged in the free skate on a night when many of the World's top skaters gave career-best performances. At the U.S. Championships that followed in Washington, D.C., she won the school figures over Sonya (Klopfer) Dunfield by the narrowest of margins. As Yvonne's strength was considered to be the figures, some felt that her narrow lead would be decimated by Sonya in the free skate. As it turned out, Sonya took a tumble early in her free skate. Yvonne had one of the finest performances of her career and easily defended her national title. In fact, it wasn't even close... she won by seventeen points! 

Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive

In "Tracings" magazine, Eugene Turner recalled, "Gifted with quality figures, but hexed with inferior free style... it was a rough road. Year after year, her usual lead in figures would disintegrate during the free skating. Blessed with a lovely style and musical taste, she at the same time appeared slow and weak, jumped poorly if at all. When her patience was finally rewarded it was not through any free skating improvement but because of the normal attrition at the top... So she decided to go to Gus Lussi for help... The old magician... went to work... [At the 1950 U.S. Championships] she appeared transformed; a human floodlight, a graceful dynamo, and electrical storm on skates. She was actually unrecognizable, as if she had decided to sell her soul to the devil for one huge performance. It was that master hypnotist Lussi. And perhaps that was what Gus Lussi did - hypnotize."

Yvonne Sherman and Dick Button at the 1950 U.S. Championships

Her goal to become World Champion unfulfilled, Yvonne retired from skating in 1950 to pursue a career as a concert pianist. Instead, she married army lieutenant and textile executive Arthur McGowan Jr. in October of that year, settled in Scarsdale, New York, skated in a few carnivals and devoted herself to motherhood and golf.

Left: Yvonne at her first wedding. Right: Yvonne in the sixties. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

After Yvonne and Arthur divorced, she walked down the aisle with William Thayer Tutt, a President of the International Ice Hockey Federation who later served as the head of the Broadmoor Hotel and helped bring the USFSA headquarters to Colorado Springs. It was both Yvonne and William's second marriage.

Though Yvonne didn't take advantage of what could have been a very lucrative professional career in figure skating, she remained extremely active in the sport. In addition to serving on numerous USFSA committees, she acted as a judge at eight World Championships between 1965 and 1980. She also judged the men's and pairs events at the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble and the women's event at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck. She was very much admired by the skaters who competed during that period. Olympic Silver Medallist and two-time World Champion Tim Wood recalled, "Yvonne was a sweetheart... a real classy lady. Always dressed to the nines with her hair done... a very nice lady. I liked her."

In 1968, Yvonne helped organize a skating revue at the Playland Ice Casino in Rye in hopes of generating more interest in figure skating in the Westchester area. Before the show, she screened a color educational film about the sport made by the National Film Board of Canada. She told reporters, "There is very little juvenile delinquency in Canada, where ice sports occupy the attention of the youngsters many months of the year. The active youngster is rarely in trouble. The inactive ones spent their idle time thinking up what trouble to get into next. Let's keep our youngsters busy in sports. Let's keep them skating and playing hockey, and we'll develop fine citizens of tomorrow. By providing the sports and competitions which will include participators as well as spectators, we will get our children off the streets, away from the jukeboxes, and in healthy recreation."

Left: Yvonne Sherman and William Thayer Tutt at the 1979 Midwestern Championships at The Broadmoor. Right: Yvonne Sherman posing in the sixties.

Yvonne was inducted into the USFSA Hall Of Fame in 1991 at the same time her late husband William Thayer Tutt was inducted posthumously. She remained active in the figure skating community her entire life and passed away on February 2, 2005, in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the age of seventy-four. Her gravestone reads, "Beloved Mother, Champion And Virtuosa".

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