ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610210060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
DOCTORS HAVE PULLED THE SHEET over her head - twice - since she was last a World Arm Wrestling Federation champion. After six years out of the sport, she's back in the championships.
A brand new set of golf clubs was sitting at the bottom of the staircase when Marsha Eanes got home from the tournament in April. They have rarely been touched.
Golf can be detrimental to your performance when you're an arm wrestler. Eanes used to be one of, if not the, best in the world. She still may be.
After six years away from the sport and two near-death experiences, Eanes is back in the World Arm Wrestling Federation championships beginning Sunday in Virginia Beach. Only 60 U.S. arm wrestlers made the event, in which 63 countries will be represented.
It is her first trip back to the worlds, either as a participant or spectator, since she won the women's lightweight championship in 1990.
``I feel like I'm the underdog,'' said Eanes, rubbing her arms - which are well-toned, but nothing like Popeye's. ``It's just another chance.''
Her first match since 1990 came in April at the Tennessee state championships. Eanes, who lives near Martinsville, found the location and time to her liking, so she entered - and won. Next came the national championship in Albany, N.Y., in July, where she lost early to a 17-year-old from Nebraska, but came back to take first in the women's masters right-handed division and second in the masters left.
Her husband, Buddy Eanes, had a new set of golf clubs waiting for her when she got home.
``I think that was in case I happened to lose,'' Eanes said.
Eanes said she hasn't used the clubs, but probably will once she returns from Virginia Beach.
``That's his game,'' she said.
* * *
Eanes was at the top of her game in January 1990. A native of Norfolk, Neb., she had just won her third lightweight World Arm Wrestling Federation championship and her first since 1983. Whenever she competed, cheers from the crowd flooded her opponents' ears and drowned out their hopes of victory. Television commentators called her ``seasoned veteran,'' and doubted anyone who stood across the table from her.
She also was the head of her town's parks and recreation department.
Eanes' career was better than her health. A divorced mother of two at the time, Eanes had visited her doctor and been prescribed birth control pills. She was in her late 30s, an age at which doctors tend to be more careful in prescribing birth control. But for some reason, the fact that five of Marsha's family members died of strokes never came up. Stroke is among the possible side effects of the pills.
In July of that year, six months after winning the world title left-and right-handed, Eanes lay in a bed in Methodist Hospital in Omaha, Neb., victim of a stroke. She was unconscious, the left side of her body was paralyzed. As the doctors worked on her, she slid closer and closer to death.
``They covered me up once,'' Eanes said. ``They quit working on me. I was pretty bad off. Apparently my toe or hand twitched and they started working again.
``God was on my side that day.''
After she got out of the hospital, her oldest daughter, Jenniffer, and son, John, took care of her. Massage therapists worked on her muscles, kneading them daily to prevent atrophy. Eventually, she regained use of her left side.
A year after her stroke, on Aug.9, 1991, her youngest daughter, Tabetha, was born. Six weeks later, Eanes' gall bladder burst. During surgery, her heart stopped. Doctors laid her on ice and again draped a white sheet over her.
``I was down for a while then, too,'' she said.
By that time, however, Eanes was dreaming of a return to her sport. She declared her intentions when she marched to her doctor and demanded that the stitches be removed from her right rib cage. Eanes said the stitches got in the way when she did her sit-ups.
* * *
Eanes arm wrestled for the first time in 1977. She was two years out of the Army, where she was a personnel specialist. Eanes was on her way to the University of South Dakota when she met Chris Taylor, a U.S. bronze medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Taylor introduced her to the sport by entering her in a tournament in Sioux City, Iowa. Eanes finished third.
``I couldn't shift the car for a week,'' she said.
By the time she graduated from South Dakota in 1980, she was well on her way to the top of the arm wrestling ranks. Her first two world championships came soon after that, and then Cannon Films called. The company was making a movie based on arm wrestling, ``Over The Top.''
She made four appearances in the movie. ``Bits and pieces,'' she said, ``mostly on the cutting room floor.''
But she organized more than 500 tournaments that provided footage for the film. It also put more attention on the sport than ever before.
``She's an icon out here,'' said Nebraska resident Mary McConnaughey, a former world heavyweight champion.
Arm wrestling has welcomed many newcomers to the sport since Eanes' health struggles. While a new crop was moving around the country trying to make a name, Eanes was moving Tabetha to Martinsville so her daughter could know her great-grandmother, who was dying of cancer.
Eanes and Tabetha arrived in Virginia on Labor Day, 1993. The fact they had been flooded out of their Kansas City, Mo., home gave them a push to get here faster. All of her possessions were lost in the flood, including more than 200 trophies.
``That made it easier to leave,'' Eanes said. ``What are material things compared to life? You don't realize that until you're dying. And I've been as close to death as anyone.''
She found a well-paying job with a Martinsville furniture company, but developed carpal tunnel syndrome in her hands after a few months. She found herself in surgery once again, this time on the most critical body parts for arm wrestlers. This surgery, however, was nearly painless and almost flawless.
``A doctor told me, `It looks like God did that surgery,''' Eanes said. ``I said, `That means I don't have to pay, right?'''
It was that sense of humor that attracted Buddy Eanes, head of Warren Trucking in Martinsville, to Marsha last year. They met at church and were married Dec.9. Buddy encouraged her from that day to get back into the sport. She already had every intention to do that.
She is leaving her new home for five days to step back into the past, hoping to add to her new trophy collection, which now numbers two. When she hasn't been strengthening her hands by working as a massage therapist at The Forum in Martinsville, she's been lugging around handweights. She also rediscovered her love of swimming this summer to help with her muscle elasticity.
Once she returns, she said she'll relax and work on the golf.
``I've been very blessed,'' she said. ``Even though it doesn't seem like it.''
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY. Staff Marsha Eanes, seen at her armwrestling table, came to Martinsville in 1993 after having lost her
possessions in a Midwest flood. color.