Margaret Gisolo

She died in Tempe, Arizona on October 20, 2009, shortly before her 95th birthday.

After the war, she taught dance at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from 1947 to 1952. She joined the faculty at Arizona State University in 1954, co-founding a School of Dance based on the modern dance component of the physical education department, which became "one of the top university dance programs in the country" with her as chair. There her students including baseball player Reggie Jackson; she is also cited by dancer Bill Evans as his "dance mother".

After her school education in Jacksonville Elementary School in Blanford, and Clinton High School in Clinton, Indiana, from which she graduated in 1931, she attended college, gaining her bachelor's degree from Indiana State University in 1935 and a Master of Arts from New York University in 1942. Gisolo also played baseball on barnstorming teams, with Maud Nelson among others. During World War II, she served as an officer in the U.S. Navy WAVES, becoming a lieutenant commander.

She was taught to play baseball by an older brother, who played minor league baseball at a semi-professional level. In 1928 Gisolo played for the Blanford Cubs from Blanford, Indiana in the American Legion junior baseball program, a program for children aged 14 to 16. With her team's growing success, she achieved considerable fame, with the New York Times calling her "The Girl Babe Ruth of Blanford, Ind", and her progress was tracked by "every media outlet from rural weeklies to Movietone News".

Margaret Gisolo (Oct. 21, 1914 - Oct. 20, 2009) was an American sportswoman and educator who while still a child was a pioneer in the history of women in baseball as the first girl to play American Legion baseball, a predecessor of Little League. At the time, she was "featured in newspapers across the country". Later, she played a significant role in the development of Arizona State University's School of Dance into one of the best in the USA.