Owens, Jesse

(James Cleveland Owens, 1913.09.12-1980.03.31)  Olympic Gold Medal Winner, speaker, businessman.

Lived in Paradise Valley

Died at University Hospital, Tucson

Phoenix has named a street after Jesse Owens.  The Jesse Owens Urgent Care medical facility is adjacent to the parkway. 1-03

Jesse Owens presented a serious challenge to Adolph Hitler's master race theory when he, a black American runner, beat all Aryan contenders to take four Gold Medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  As Hitler watched from the stands, Jesse tied the world record in the 100 meter dash (10.3 seconds), set Olympic records in the 200 meter dash (20.7 seconds) and the long jump (8.06 meters).  In the first leg of the 400-meter relay, he set an Olympic and world record (39.8 seconds).  Rather than congratulate the black American athlete at the award ceremony, Hitler left the stadium.

After the Olympics, Jesse returned to an America where as a champion high school and college athlete, he could often not eat in the same restaurant, sleep in the same hotel, or even drink at the same fountain as his white teammates.  A sophomore at Ohio State prior to the Olympics, Jesse left college before his senior year to run professionally, which he did until 1948.  As a professional runner, he was able to provide substantially more help with the family finances than he could as a student.

Jesse was one of 8 children of an Alabama share cropper.  When he was eight, the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio but the move proved to be less financially rewarding than hoped.  On his first day in class at his new school his teacher asked him his name.  He answered "J.C." in his finest Alabama accent.  The teacher took the response for "Jesse" and the name stuck.

When Jesse moved to Phoenix in 1972 and the median household income in the U.S. was $27,320, he was reportedly earning $75,000 a year from his speaking engagements and public appearances.  His clientele included the Ford Motor Company, the American League, Atlantic Richfield, and Sears Roebuck.

The Owens settled in the Heritage Heights subdivision in northeast Phoenix and Jesse joined the Brookhill public relations firm in Scottsdale.  Within three years, Owens was chairman of Brookhill's successor, Owens, Brookhill, Sturgis & Scott.  He was also on the boards of Memorial Hospital, the National Council of Christians and Jews, the Salvation Army's South Mountain Youth and Family Center Advisory Counsel, and the Boy Scouts of America.

Jesse met his demise courtesy of the American tobacco industry.  He had been a pack a day cigarette smoker for 35 years before his death.  While traveling to Chicago in December, 1979, he experienced shortness of breath and checked into a hospital.  He was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer.  When he returned to Arizona, he began receiving chemotherapy at the University of Arizona Hospital in Tucson.  Three and a half months later, he died in the Tucson hospital's intensive care unit with his wife of 47 years at his side.