An accomplished athlete, Rose Pitonof swam across Boston Harbor at the age of ten. It took her thirty-three minutes. When she was fifteen, she won the Boston Light Swim, setting a new record. The seven men she was competing with all dropped out before the finish line. She later appeared in a vaudeville act during which she gave swimming and diving lessons in a portable tank. Another major feat was swimming the seventeen miles from East 23rd Street in Manhattan to Steeplechase Pier on Coney Island. In 1911, she was named the Woman’s Long Distance Swimming Champion of the World. Unfortunately, her attempts to swim the English Channel in 1912 were thwarted by bad weather. Pitonof’s celebrity status was cemented when her image appeared on cigarette cards, which were similar to today’s baseball cards. She married dentist Frederic Weene in 1916. It was rumored that she chose marriage over a possible career in Hollywood. The couple had two daughters and socialized with celebrities Rose knew from her vaudeville days. Their daughter Elinor followed her mother’s lead, becoming a champion swimmer as well. Rose lived to be 89 years old. The Rose Pitinof Swim, replicating her route from Manhattan to Coney Island, was established in 2011 in her honor.
