Appalachian Figures
On a Nashville night in 1948 a young woman from Perry County, Kentucky tagged along to the wrestling matches at the old Hippodrome Arena. She was not a fan. Her sister sewed jackets for the wrestlers and had talked her into going. During the women’s bout one of the wrestlers, Dot Dotson, took a spill out of the ring and landed squarely in the visitor’s lap.
That accident set off a chain of events that would carry Beulah Mae “Cora” Combs from the coal camps around Hazard and Bonnyman onto cards across the United States and around the world. Within a few years she was part of the Billy Wolfe women’s troupe, a traveling carnival of headlocks and dropkicks that helped define mid twentieth century women’s wrestling. By the time she died in 2015 she held multiple National Wrestling Alliance titles, had worked more than a thousand recorded matches, and had been honored by the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and the WWE Hall of Fame.
For Appalachian historians she is something else as well. She is one of Hazard’s most widely traveled daughters, a Perry County athlete who used the ring instead of the basketball court, and a reminder that mid century Appalachia produced not only miners and musicians but also women who built national sports careers.
Hazard, Bonnyman, And The Combs Family
Vital records and census schedules give us the firmest anchors for Cora’s early life. The Kentucky Birth Index records a Beulah M. Combs born 17 March 1927 in Perry County. The entry is tied to a child of Lorenzo or Lourenza D. Combs and Susie Mae Wright, names that will follow her through later documents.
By 1940 she appears in the federal census as “Beulah M. Combs,” a teenage daughter in the household of Lourenza D. and Susie M. Combs in the Hazard and Bonnyman area of Perry County. That census entry, paired with the birth index, places her childhood squarely in the coalfield communities along the North Fork of the Kentucky River rather than in some generic “Kentucky” biography line.
Her 2015 obituary, published by Spring Hill Funeral Home in Nashville, lines up neatly with those records. It describes Beulah “Cora Combs” Szostecki as having been born in Hazard on 17 March 1927 to Lorenzo and Susie Mae Combs. It also adds the vivid detail that during her school years she played guard on the basketball team and ran track at Bonnyman High School, a reminder that long before she took a bump off the ropes she was already an athlete.
The Completely Kentucky Wiki, which draws directly on the obituary and vital record references, repeats the March 1927 birth in Hazard and names her parents as Lourenza D. Combs and Susie Mai Wright. City reference sites that list “notable people born in Hazard” routinely include her alongside actress Rebecca Gayheart and other Perry County natives, further anchoring her in local memory as a Hazard born professional wrestler.
Taken together, these records give us a clear picture. Beulah Mae Combs grew up in and around Hazard and Bonnyman during the tail end of the great eastern Kentucky coal boom, the daughter of a local Combs family in a county where that surname threads through nearly every holler.
From Bonnyman High School To The Hippodrome
According to her obituary, after finishing at Bonnyman High School she did not set out to become a wrestler at all. Like many Appalachian singers of her generation she headed for Nashville with a dream of singing on the Grand Ole Opry. Once there she worked as a country music singer, performing for audiences who knew her voice rather than her dropkick.
Wrestling crept in sideways. Her sister, already involved as a seamstress making ring jackets, convinced her to come to a card at the Hippodrome Arena in 1948. The women’s match on the bill pitted Dot Dotson against Mildred Burke, then the biggest name in women’s wrestling in North America. During the bout Dotson took a fall out of the ring and landed in Beulah’s lap. After the show Nashville promoter Nick Gulas introduced the startled Hazard native to Billy Wolfe, the Ohio based promoter who controlled much of women’s wrestling at mid century.
Family accounts preserved in the Spring Hill obituary recall that Wolfe invited her to come to his school in Columbus and had her train with champion June Byers. After only about six weeks she was thrown into her first match, a seven woman battle royal in Jackson, Mississippi.
Modern wrestling biographies flatten that whirlwind into a neat line. WWE’s Hall of Fame profile and wrestling reference sites describe a progression from country singer to trainee under Billy Wolfe after seeing Mildred Burke, then a debut in the late 1940s. The near contemporary obituary, written with input from family and wrestling colleagues, fills in the human details that primary sources often miss.
Billy Wolfe’s Troupe And A Life On The Road
By the early 1950s Beulah had become “Cora Combs” in the ring and settled into the grueling life of a traveling wrestler. Contemporary accounts and later histories describe Wolfe’s troupe as a rough equivalent of a barnstorming sports team and carnival combined. Women traveled in small groups by car, working one night in a Tennessee armory, the next in an Ohio city auditorium, and a week later under foreign lights in another country entirely.
WrestlingData, a statistical site that compiles bout results from newspaper listings, programs, and fan records, attributes more than 1,200 matches to Cora Combs between the late 1940s and her retirement in the mid 1980s. That count is almost certainly incomplete, yet it is enough to show that she was not a novelty act. She was a territory regular.
The Spring Hill obituary notes that she wrestled in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Cuba before the Castro revolution, the Fiji Islands, and Nigeria, and that during a German tour she worked under the name Hildegard Schmidt. Promotion rosters for the Kansas City based Central States Wrestling and the mid 1970s International Wrestling Association list her alongside other women who rotated through those circuits, reinforcing the sense that she was a familiar figure in a wide belt of American arenas from Florida to the Midwest.
Her opponents read like a roll call of mid century women’s wrestling. The obituary and later tributes mention matches against Mildred Burke, the Fabulous Moolah, Mae Young, June Byers, Kay Noble, and many others. Secondary sources built on those recollections credit her with multiple reigns as NWA United States Women’s Champion and with holding the Florida version of the NWA Southern Women’s Championship.
Newspaper ads and fan magazine clippings, though scattered, support that picture. Some bill her as United States Women’s Champion, others as a challenger for regional titles in Indianapolis and other cities. Wrestling historian Greg Oliver, writing in a 2015 Slam Wrestling obituary, emphasizes not only her toughness in the ring but also the respect she commanded among fellow professionals, especially when she worked under a mask as a villain.
What the primary record shows most clearly is her longevity. From the vantage point of Perry County, her career stretched from the years when coal camp kids still remembered mule teams to the era of cable wrestling. When she finally retired from active competition in 1985 she had spent roughly thirty five years taking bumps, traveling back roads, and performing before crowds in at least three continents.
Lady Satan, Debbie Combs, And A Mother Daughter Story
If Cora Combs had simply been a tough worker in Wolfe’s troupe her story would still be worth telling. What gives it an extra twist is the way it braided with the life of her daughter.
Deborah Ann Szostecki, born in Nashville in 1959, followed her mother into the business under the ring name Debbie Combs. Debbie trained under Cora and debuted as a teenager, eventually becoming a major figure herself in several territories and in the American Wrestling Association.
For much of the 1970s and 1980s mother and daughter found themselves on opposite sides of the ring. To make that possible Cora often wrestled under a mask as “Lady Satan,” a persona remembered vividly in both family recollections and wrestler tributes. The mask and name allowed promoters to advertise mother against daughter without undercutting the illusion that these were simply two bitter rivals.
Footage that survives from those years, including a widely circulated late 1970s bout between Cora and Debbie, shows a veteran who understood how to make a younger wrestler look strong without entirely ceding the spotlight. Colleagues quoted in both the obituary guestbook and later tributes talk about how their act, along with their willingness to mentor younger women, made them highlights of reunion shows and legends conventions long after they stopped taking full speed bumps.
In the small world of professional wrestling history, they are often cited as the only sustained mother daughter pairing to have fought one another regularly on cards across the country. Whether that is literally true or not, it is clear from the primary sources that promoters and fans alike saw the relationship as unusual and memorable.
Nashville, Faith, And The Final Bell
Although she built her name in arenas across North America and beyond, Cora’s home base for much of her adult life was Nashville. The Spring Hill obituary describes her as a member of the Cathedral of the Incarnation, a cat lover who doted on her pets Oreo and Callie, and a regular at bingo games and western movies when she was not appearing at wrestling reunions. It also notes her service in the United States Army, a brief but striking detail that few wrestling profiles mention.
Her final years brought formal acknowledgment from the institutions of the sport she had helped keep alive. In 2007 she was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, a fact preserved in an archived biography that summarizes her long career and lists her among that class of honorees. In 2018 WWE recognized her as part of the Hall of Fame’s Legacy Wing, placing her name alongside figures like El Santo, Boris Malenko, and Luna Vachon as foundational but sometimes overlooked contributors to wrestling history.
Cora Combs died in Nashville on 21 June 2015. The Spring Hill funeral record gives her age as eighty eight and repeats the 1927 birth date, aligning with the Kentucky Birth Index and the best available vital records. Some wrestling obituaries and fan sites, relying on a 1923 birth year, report that she died at ninety two. For historians of Perry County, the state records and family published obituary carry the most weight, so this article follows the 1927 to 2015 dating.
Sorting Out The Other Perry County Coras
Anyone who works in Perry County records for long quickly learns that “Combs” is one of the most common surnames in the region. “Cora” is also a familiar given name in local families. As a result, researchers run into several different women named Cora Combs, and it is easy to tangle their identities.
One example is a woman listed on Find A Grave as “Cora Combs Combs,” born in 1877 and buried in Brewer Cemetery at Hazard. Her memorial links her to parents Lacey Combs and Elizabeth Combs and to a husband in the Brewer family. She belongs to an earlier generation than the wrestler and moves in a different circle of kin.
Another “Cora Combs” shows up in Owsley and Laurel County related genealogies as the wife of Alson Herbert Baker, remembered in the obituary of their son Herbert E. Baker as “Cora Combs Baker.” Yet another appears as “Cora Combs Johnson,” named as the mother of schoolteacher Bobbie Jean Couch in a 2016 Hazard area obituary.
These women are not the same person as Beulah Mae “Cora” Combs Szostecki of Hazard and Nashville. What they show instead is how easily online trees and unsourced family notes can misattach life stories when a name recurs in a dense kin network. For local genealogy projects, the key is to start where this article began, with the combination of Perry County vital records, the 1940 census household of Lourenza and Susie Mae Combs, and the Nashville obituary that names Beulah’s children as Charles David and Deborah.
Why Cora Combs Matters For Appalachian History
From the vantage point of a Hazard street or a Bonnyman basketball court the life of Cora Combs is improbable. She was born in a coal county during the interwar years, raised in the shadow of tipples and company houses, and left home chasing a music dream. She ended up spending nearly four decades literally fighting for a living, bleeding and bruising and traveling for what was, at the time, a marginal corner of the sporting world.
Yet the primary record of her life complicates easy stereotypes about both wrestling and Appalachia. She was not a creation of television. She predated the national cable boom by decades. Nor was she an isolated mountain figure plucked suddenly onto a national stage. Her story runs through Nashville nightclubs, Columbus training gyms, and Florida armories as naturally as it runs through Perry County school gyms.
For Appalachian history her significance lies in several places. She represents a generation of mountain women who used sports, not only song, to carve out a measure of independence. She shows how mid century migrants from the coalfields helped staff the cultural industries of cities like Nashville, often in roles that popular histories overlook. And her induction into both the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and the WWE Hall of Fame places a Hazard native in the official memory of a global entertainment empire, even if only in its legacy wing.
Just as importantly, the web of records around her life reminds historians that even in something as theatrical as professional wrestling the bedrock sources still matter. Behind the ring name stands Beulah Mae Combs, daughter of Lorenzo and Susie Mae, born in Perry County in 1927, a Bonnyman High School athlete who carried that athleticism into a ring that would take her farther from home than most of her neighbors could ever imagine.
Sources & Further Reading
Kentucky Birth Index, entry for Beulah M. Combs, born 17 March 1927, Perry County, Kentucky, as cited in modern biographical summaries of Cora Combs. Wikipedia
1940 United States Census, Perry County, Kentucky, household of Lourenza D. and Susie M. Combs, including daughter Beulah M. Combs, referenced in later wrestling biographies. Wikipedia
Spring Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee, “Mrs. Beulah ‘Cora Combs’ Szostecki” obituary and associated tribute wall, providing detailed narrative of her schooling, move to Nashville, wrestling career, and survivors. Spring Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery+1
“Combs, Cora (Beulah Szostecki),” Jack Pfefer Wrestling Collection, University of Notre Dame, MARBLE digital collections, listing photographic and promotional material related to her career. Wikipedia
“Cora Combs,” Completely Kentucky Wiki, summarizing her life with explicit citation of Kentucky vital records and the Spring Hill obituary. Completely Kentucky
“Cora Combs,” Wikipedia, and associated Italian language entry, giving a concise overview of her career, championships, and status as the last survivor of the Billy Wolfe troupe, with references to Kentucky Birth Index, 1940 census, and obituary. Wikipedia+1
Greg Oliver, “Cora Combs was a pioneering woman wrestler,” Slam Wrestling, June 2015, an obituary drawing on interviews and wrestling historian knowledge to place her within the history of women’s wrestling. Slam Wrestling
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame biography of Cora Combs, preserved in PDF form, confirming her 2007 induction and summarizing her wrestling accomplishments. Von Erich Family
WWE.com, “Cora Combs: Bio,” and related coverage of the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame Legacy Wing, documenting her posthumous recognition by WWE. WWE+1
WrestlingData.com, “Cora Combs – Facts,” summarizing her career and documenting more than 1,200 recorded matches across multiple promotions and countries. Wrestling Data
Find A Grave memorial for “Cora Combs Combs” of Brewer Cemetery, Hazard, and regional obituaries referencing “Cora Combs Baker” and “Cora Combs Johnson,” illustrating the presence of multiple women with the same name in Perry and nearby counties. Legacy+4Find A Grave+4Find A Grave+4