The late James Francis Thorpe was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics.
Jim Thorpe’s cause of death: What happened to Jim Thorpe?
The son of an Irish father and a Sac and Fox Indian mother Jim Thorpe died on March 28, 1953, in Lomita, California, United States at the age of 65.
It was recorded in early 1953 that, Thorpe went into heart failure for the third time while dining with Patricia in their home in Lomita, California. He was briefly revived by artificial respiration and spoke to those around him, but lost consciousness shortly afterward.
He was born on May 28, 1887, in Oklahoma, United States into a family of two children. He is a twin and his brother is called Charlie Thorpe.
Thorpe started his athletic career at Carlisle in 1907 when he walked past the track and, still in street clothes, beat all the school’s high jumpers with an impromptu 5-ft 9-in jump. His earliest recorded track and field results come from 1907. He also competed in football, baseball, lacrosse, and ballroom dancing, winning the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship.
Thorpe in his lifetime was married three times and had a total of eight children. In 1913, he married Iva M. Miller, whom he had met at Carlisle. In 1917, Iva and Thorpe bought a house now known as the Jim Thorpe House in Yale, Oklahoma, and lived there until 1923. They had four children: James F., Gale, Charlotte, and Grace Frances, an environmentalist and Native rights activist. Miller filed for divorce from Thorpe in 1925, claiming desertion.
Thorpe married Freeda Verona Kirkpatrick in 1926. She was working for the baseball team manager for which he was playing at the time. They had four sons: Phillip, William, Richard, and John Thorpe. Kirkpatrick divorced Thorpe in 1941 after they had been married for 15 years.
His third marriage was to Patricia Gladys Askew on June 2, 1945. She was with him when he died.
Source: nflfaqs.com
