Carole White Breithaupt, first Miss Long Beach and mother of BMX racing legend, dies at 86
White – who went on that year to take fifth place in the Miss California pageant – later assumed the last name of her first husband, race car driver Leo M. Breithaupt, Sr., and remained active in the local pageant, along with several nonprofits.
Breithaupt died of emphysema July 19 in Palm Springs at age 86, her daughter said.
“She had a great, long life with no regrets,” said daughter Lynda Breithaupt Muenzer.
In a sign of the times, a story in a 1950 edition of the Press-Telegram about Breithaupt taking a job as a stewardess with American Airlines gushed that she was a “curvy 5 feet 5” (among other measurements), a “blue-eyed brunette,” saying “lucky passengers may be as giddy on the ground as some are aloft.”
“She was so elegant and glamorous,” Muenzer said.
In addition to working as a stewardess for the airline, Breithaupt flew for the Military Air Transport Service, helping to bring home soldiers wounded in the Korean War, before working as a local Realtor.
In 1952, she married Leo Breithaupt, and had three children: Jeffrey, Lynda and Scot.
She met with tragedy a year ago when Scot, who was a Long Beach native and key figure in starting the BMX motocross craze that spread across the country, died at 57 in July 2015 after a drug-related incident in Indio. Known as “The Old Man,” Scot Breithaupt built race tracks in the 1970s that drew attention from the region’s BMXers.
Carole Breithaupt told The Desert Sun newspaper last year that illegal drugs were her son’s undoing, adding that “the greatest legacy he could leave is not BMX,” but helping to stop the trafficking of drugs.
Breithaupt was born to Lucile Maier White and Thomas A. White in Bottineau, North Dakota on Sept. 2, 1929. In junior high school, she moved to Long Beach and graduated from Wilson High School in 1947. While studying business at Long Beach City College, Breithaupt worked as a model in Los Angeles and New York, and earned a brief contract with RKO Pictures.
Her Miss Long Beach title meant the world to Breithaupt, and she remained involved decades after her win, with community activist and pageant organizer Justin Rudd continuing to enlist her service in recent years.
“It was a huge deal,” Muenzer said. “Justin Rudd would have my mom come and sometimes she was a judge, or she talked to the girls. Even that was a whole other family for her — Miss Long Beach. She was deeply rooted to Long Beach.”
She married Vance Thurston in 1973. Thurston had four children — Annalee, Bob, James and Ronald.
Breithaupt worked primarily as a Realtor over the years, and co-founded the Long Beach-based JTM Brokerage Inc.
Her many civic endeavors included stints on the Long Beach Board of Realtors, in the American Airlines Kiwi Club, Scottish Society of the Desert and as a volunteer at the Palm Springs Air Museum.
Muenzer said Breithaupt was not a conventional mother for the times, as she worked outside the home and was active in the community. But she always made time for her children, like when Muenzer came home with her first baby.
“She was cleaning my house in her business suit and high heels,” Muenzer said.
Muenzer said her friends adored Breithaupt, as did the friends of Breithaupt’s grandchildren, who called her “Gigi.” She was their biggest cheerleader, Muenzer said.
Breithaupt enjoyed driving Cadillacs, playing the piano, reading, tap-dance and travelling. She published a book about her family heritage titled “Legacy of a North Dakota Pioneer – Six Generations and 150 Years.”
Breithaupt attended Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Long Beach for 35 years, where she also taught Sunday School. After moving to Rancho Mirage in 1987, she joined Hope Lutheran Church in Palm Desert.
She was on oxygen for nearly a year, and toward the end of her life, Breithaupt always carried her small, portable tank with dignity, to the point where family said their matriarch could’ve started a fashion trend.
“She had the best posture,” Muenzer said. “She stood tall and carried that thing like a purse on her shoulder.”
Breithaupt died on the same date of late mother’s birth.
“She was a very special woman,” Muenzer said.
Breithaupt is survived by her sister, Dorothy Hill; sons Jeffrey Breithaupt, James Thurston, Ron Thurston; daughter Lynda Muenzer; 14 grandchildren and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.
A memorial service for will be held at 11 a.m. on Aug. 6 at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 370 Junipero Ave. in Long Beach.
http://www.presstelegram.com/obituaries/20160725/carole-white-breithaupt-first-miss-long-beach-and-mother-of-bmx-racing-legend-dies-at-86
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