1980's Bodybuilding star Dona Oliveira dies at the age of 58.

Dona Oliveira

It was reported this week that bodybuilder Dona Oliveira died at the age of 58.
Here's the news shared by Lonnie Teper on the Evolution of Bodybuilding site.Dona Oliveira passes away.
No word on cause of death. 
I remember her well from the early days of women's bodybuilding.She could be described as being from the second wave of 80's female bodybuilders.She was riding on the inspiration of the late 70's-to early 80's birth of modern women's bodybuilding.
She was genuinely beautiful.At 5'1 and 120'slbs weight she had amazing quality in a small package.
Fantastic arms,and shoulders.A tiny tight waist and lovely legs.She also had the requisite poofy 80's hair do.
I wouldn't be exaggerating by much if I called her great.She was a very fine bodybuilder.
She competed in several Ms Olympia contests,and placed as high as 6th.
She also won a few big contests including the 85' NPC USA,85' IFBB World Games,and the 88' IFBB Pro World Championships.
She retired in 1990.Then remarkably,she came back in her 50's to compete a few more times in Physique.
She was from Massachusetts,and you could sure hear it in her classic accent.
She had a long career as a hospital nurse as well.

Here's video of several news stories done on her from 1988.
I vividly recall the CNN story.I know I watched it.Hell,I probably taped it too.
It's the third story at about 5:20 in the video.

She featured regularly in the popular bodybuilding magazines as well.
She always seemed to be so bright,full,and robust.And very much like she was enjoying her time in the sport.
She said she retired because the level in women's bodybuilding changed too much.She's right.The muscularity,and conditioning did change a lot quickly.

Here's an early video from a popular American morning show with Dona,and Kris Alexander.
This is a good example of what the mid eighties female bodybuilder looked like.Very fit,yes.But they're similar to the appearance of CrossFit athletes now.Not really bulky,or hard.
(To address the question that always comes up,I wouldn't be surprised if both were natural at this time.Alexander doesn't look like she's taken anabolics.I doubt Oliveira had taken any,or much.I would say she did use PEDS at the height of her career.)
These women look very healthy.And you can see the why there was a growing interest in female bodybuilders at this time.

Here's a mix of images from her career.

An interview with Dave Palumbo of RxMuscle from her 2014 comeback.
Extraordinary condition in a 53 year old woman!

She seemed like a really terrific person.I've heard a lot of people in bodybuilding paying their sincere respects,and saying how much they liked her.
She kept training,and loved the life of a lifter.
You really can't say enough good things about the people who dedicate their lives to nursing either.

Deep condolences to her family,and friends.
She'll be missed.

Book Review:The Weider Book of Bodybuilding for Women by Betty and Joe Weider.

Cover with model Shelly Gruwell

The cover of 'The Weider Book of Bodybuilding for Women' from 1981 by Betty and Joe Weider.
This is one of the early books I got when I was a teen starting out in weight training.
Bodybuilding for women was just becoming popular,or even known,for that matter in the late seventies-early eighties period.This book was published by the Weider company that also put out a number of popular magazines like Muscle & Fitness.They were the company in bodybuilding and fitness at the time.Betty Brosmer Weider was the wife of the head of the company Joe Weider.
She was a pinup girl,and model.She was actually an early pioneer in the modern women's fitness movement.So she may have actually written some of the material.But I'll bet Joe,and some copy people wrote it too.
It's very basic.It's written for the new audience of young women who were just starting out in weight training.It's trying to be reassuring to the 'ladies' that weights won't make you masculine,or intimidating.
It features black and white pictures of women in leotards using a lot of Nautilus equipment.Nautilus made all kinds of exercise machines that just look unnecessarily complicated.Rube Goldberg contraptions for exercise that are basically huge expensive machines to do what you can easily do with barbells,and dumbbells.Fashionably constructed out of shiny chrome,and fake tan leather.They went out of business as a gym manufacturer years ago.But they still own a number of home brands like Bowflex,and Schwinn Fitness.
I think most things were made out of chrome in the seventies.

I think the first time I became aware of the existence of bodybuilding was probably seeing the movie 'Pumping Iron'.I must have seen it on HBO.Because I'm certain I didn't see it in a theater.
I was inherently intrigued by the act of humans forcing their muscles to grow.I was really amazed,and pleased to see that other girls,and women felt the same way.So I bought a number of the early women's bodybuilding books.
I would have to say this is one of the poorer books on the subject.There's no sense of the revolutionary spirit of women lifting weights,and becoming strong.It's very safe,and corporate.I doubt I got that much out of it.The fact is lifting weights is lifting weights.Form is form.So while I can appreciate the fact they were trying to give women something to relate to you don't need cutesy little fitness girls to learn how to lift.I read the articles in Muscle and Fitness and they had good picture spreads of male bodybuilders.They did start including real female bodybuilders too.
I did belong to a gym when I was teen(My mother joined and took me along ).But they didn't have that much equipment.Certainly not all those crazy Nautilus contraptions.But it was all a bunch of chrome!
So maybe this book was a little encouragement.But it's very dated and would only be of interest to a collector of early women's bodybuilding books.Or if you're a leotard fetishist.

Multi station weight machine

Women working out on a multi station weight machine.Running shorts,and running shoes.This looks like the kind of set up they'd have in a YWCA gym.
I hope somebody let that poor girl down.

Barbell lunge

Ladies in leotards doing lunges with light weights.

Nautilus glute machine

Goofy Nautilus back,and butt machine.Looks rather....questionable!
"Help! Let me out.I promise I'll be a good girl."
I wonder if one of these is gathering dust somewhere?

Wrist curls anyone?

Here we have a buxom model performing wrist curls.Enjoy.

There's also a chapter at the end of the book on competitive women's bodybuilding which was in it's infancy.Mainly pictures of the current star of the scene Rachel McLish.A very safe,and soft image indeed.

So this book is a minor note in the history of women's weight training.But an interesting glimpse into the mood of the time.
And so much chrome.