Gerry Mahoney Tilghman, skating prodigy, Ice Capades star, model, and teacher, has died at 88

Gerry Mahoney Tilghman, 88, formerly of Bryn Mawr, a dynamic ice skating prodigy who became a headliner for Ice Capades, and Holiday on Ice, a model, and skating teacher, died Friday, Sept. 16, of a pulmonary embolism at her son’s home in Colorado Springs, Colo.

A natural-born skater as a teenager, Ms. Tilghman left high school before her senior year and became an international sensation, starring as Cinderella, Goldilocks and other characters in elaborate ice shows throughout the United States and Europe from 1951 to 1956. She was featured among dozens of other skaters, wore elegant bejeweled costumes, and was celebrated for her eye-popping spins, physical artistry, and smooth skating.

She performed at least three solo skates for many of her shows, was known for her “million-dollar personality,” and her glamorous publicity photographs appeared in publications across the country, including on the front pages of The Inquirer on Oct. 17, 1951, and Los Angeles Times on May 7, 1952.

She trained with pioneering coaches Gustave Lussi, Bob Dench, and Rosemarie Stewart. John Harris, then producer and president of Ice Capades, told the Main Line Times in September 1951 that Ms. Tilghman “is the best possible prospect we have had for stardom in the 12-year history of Ice Capades.”

City officials in Nashville appeared with her in public to promote her shows there. They artificially froze a lake in Phoenix in 1953 so she could perform in the desert, and one newspaper previewed her show by writing that she displays “skill and smoothness generally found only in veteran competitors.”

Although generally quiet about her early success, Ms. Tilghman sometimes shared stories of life on the road, telling family and friends about the people she met, the antics she witnessed, and how she was almost swept overboard while crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner. “She didn’t go wild on those trips,” said her daughter Lilla. “She took it very seriously, and not everybody did.”

Fame and fortune, Ms. Tilghman often said, were unintended consequences of her spending so much time on skates. Her real joy, she said, was that “I found peace on the ice.”

Eventually, she grew weary of touring and told The Inquirer in 1955: “I’ve decided to bypass professional skating for the time being and turn to modeling. This way, I can live and work in Philadelphia and catch up with my old friends.”

So she returned to Bryn Mawr and worked as a model for advertising campaigns and in department stores, and then in retail for a time. She never left the ice for good, though, and friends and fans marveled as she continued to literally skate circles around everyone else at the rink.

Her son, Bill, became a professional ice skater in the 1980s, and she taught skating at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs while he was in the area to complete his skating instruction. “The ice was like a magnet for her,” her daughter said. “She could spin like a top into her 70s.”

Ms. Tilghman’s mother suggested she start skating at 14 to stimulate her appetite and gain weight. She became so good so fast that she won local competitions in Philadelphia and finished first in the 1951 Eastern States junior and Middle States ladies freestyle championships.

She signed on with Ice Capades in 1951 and was so impressive at New York’s Roxy Theater in 1952 that the show was held over for two weeks, and Holiday on Ice contracted her for its national tour. “She had a confidence that nothing was out of reach,” her daughter said.

Born Oct. 30, 1933, in Philadelphia, Gertrude Mahoney was the oldest of seven children and attended Misericordae Academy, now Merion Mercy, and the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur before leaving to skate on tour. She met medical student Walter T. Spelsberg while working in a department store after she retired from skating, and they married in 1956.

They lived in the Philippines, New York, and Los Angeles before settling in Bryn Mawr in the 1970s, and had son Bill and daughter Lilla. After a divorce, she lived in Gladwyne and West Chester.

Away from the ice, Ms. Tilghman rescued animals and was a regular at the Brandywine Valley SPCA. She rode bicycles, volunteered at hospitals, and liked to swim out far into the sea at Ocean City.

In a tribute, her children said: “Mom was the wind behind our successes and the loyal support for our falls.”

In addition to her children, Ms. Tilghman is survived by three granddaughters, one sister, four brothers, and other relatives. Her former husband and one brother died earlier.

Services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, 1325 Boot Rd., West Chester, Pa. 14380.

Donations in her name may be made to the Brandywine Valley SPCA, 1212 Phoenixville Pike, West Chester, Pa. 19380.