Published: October 26, 2009 12:04 pm      

Black belt grandma still kicking

CLAREMORE, Okla. (AP) — Owasso resident Jeannie “Mamaw” O’Connor is 74-years-old and has seven great grandchildren. She also holds a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and teaches a white belt class at Beavens Martial Arts in Claremore.

“I saw a picture of Bruce Lee,” she said, “and I thought maybe that could help my grandson.”

O’Connor said her grandson was struggling, and she was praying for answers. She called her daughter, Cookie Sinor, and suggested all three of them sign up for classes. When she opened the phone book, Beavens Martial Arts in Claremore was the first entry she saw.

“I didn’t even think about my age,” said O’Connor. “I was 68 then. I signed all of us up.”

Her grandson lasted a month. She and her daughter stayed.

O’Connor has lived in Owasso for the past 28 years and still lives in the same house. She has watched the little community grow over the years. Retired from Boeing now, she spends a lot of time practicing and teaching martial arts. She also attends weight training classes at Beavens.



She said cancer runs in her family. She has battled skin cancer. Two years ago, cancer took her son, Steve O’Connor, known to friends as Mountain Man.

“He had a long white beard,” she said. “He was a beautiful, beautiful man.”

Losing a child broke her heart, but O’Connor keeps on kicking. She has made the determination to stay fit and active for as long as she can.

“I just love the forms and the kicking,” said O’Connor. “It’s like a big happy family at Beavens. Everybody cares about everybody.”

Martial arts offers more than just exercise.

“I like the discipline,” said O’Connor. “And attaining something.”

O’Connor said she had no sports outlet growing up. She thinks she would have liked to be active in something competitive when she was younger, but the opportunity just never presented itself.

“I like the competitiveness of martial arts,” she said.

In the early years she attended a few tournaments and competed. Her daughter still competes, she said. Mostly, O’Connor competes with herself, always pushing to the next belt level, moving past former limits.

Martial arts also provides a community of extended family for which she is grateful. O’Connor said she enjoys the “all for one and one for all” attitude found inside the dojo walls.

“We want everybody to succeed,” she said.

The great grandmother has learned to be tough. When her daughter accidentally tripped her and O’Connor broke her wrist a few years back, she didn’t skip a beat. Though she missed a couple of weeks of classes, O’Connor said she was close to attaining the next belt. She continued with her training and attained the rank despite the injury.

“I got an F-minus for falling at that time,” she said. “It was so quick. Of course, I didn’t know it was coming.”

How to fall without breaking anything is only one of many lessons O’Connor has learned over the years.

“Patience,” she said. “The five tenets of martial arts are patience, integrity, self-control, courtesy and indomitable spirit. It’s inside you. It keeps you going, that indomitable spirit.”

Courtesy and caring for others are important aspects of her Tae Kwon Do experience.

“Other people count,” she said. “We laugh with each other. We never laugh at anyone. It’s a fun thing. You never make fun of anybody.”

O’Connnor said she especially enjoys the hugs she gets from her youngest students in the white belt class. She’s the unofficial grandmother of the dojo.

“They all call me Mamaw,” she said. “I’m everybody’s Mamaw. Even the older people call me Mamaw. Very few know my name.”

Keys to her success have been regular and consistent class attendance and learning the forms of Tae Kwon Do.

“Concentration and self-control are the two most important things in Tae Kwon Do,” she said.

Classes are about defense and counterattack. So far, she’s never had to use her skills to defend herself, though when older women were having their purses snatched last year at Woodland Mall she wanted to fill an old purse with rocks and take a walk at the mall to see if any aggressor was foolish enough to try his luck snatching her purse.

“I pity the first person who tries,” she said.

O’Connor throws an elbow and chuckles.

“We take Tae Kwon Do so we don’t ever have to fight,” she said. “The kia (yell) is important. I’m one of the loudest here.”

She said the traditional kia, or yell, is meant to be intimidating and put an attacker off-balance.

“You have a second to get them off guard,” she said. “Kick the crotch, elbow them, whatever. But the kia is very important. They’re not expecting some old woman to be yelling at them, and while they’re thinking, they get an elbow right here.” She points to the jaw.

Team work is also an element of the martial arts dojo. Encouragement and pulling together help everyone move forward, she said.

“Everybody can do something good,” said Mamaw. “Put us all together and you can’t beat us.”