Staff Sergeant Panorea Collis of 813 Beloit is featured in this 1956 Forest Park Review photo. She is holding the pair of Dutch wooden shoes she was given after hosting a clinic teaching women in Holland the American style of softball. Panorea, an all-star catcher for the Chicago Chiefettes in the women’s national softball league joined the Air Force and served in Germany from 1953 to 1955. While serving, she was the player-coach for the Hamilton Defenders, the worldwide championship girls softball team for the Northern California Armed Forces Women’s Softball League. “It was uncanny,” Sgt. Collis remembered. “The game was played in complete silence by the Dutch girls. Who ever heard of a ballgame without a little pepper? It was amazing.”
Jill Wagner