Helen Kreis Wallenda - the last member of the original four-member Great Wallendas high-wire troupe and frequent pinnacle of the famous Wallenda pyramid during decades on the high-wire - died Thursday. She was 85.
She was just 17 when she climbed Karl Wallenda's shoulders in the debut performance of the Wallenda pyramid in Madison Square Garden. The year was 1928 and the Great Wallendas, just arrived in America from Europe, brought the audience to its feet for 11 minutes of raucous approval.The Wallendas traced their high-wire heritage to the 1600s.
She retired in 1956 before tragedy hit the family of aerialists.
In 1962, a seven-person Wallenda pyramid fell in Detroit, killing two members of the troupe and paralyzing her adopted son, Mario. Two years later, her sister died in a fall from the wire.
In 1978 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Karl Wallenda - her husband of 43 years - fell to his death while walking a wire strung up between two hotels.