Cookie Crum started her lifelong love of motorcycling at a very early age. She was just 14 years old, sitting in a high school classroom, when any motorcycle going by would distract her from the requisite shorthand lesson. When she saw a young woman from New York riding her own motorcycle, she promptly decided that she too must ride her own.
While on a family vacation, teenaged Cookie had the opportunity to visit an amusement park that included a Motor Drome show. She fell in love with the shows and watched them over and over. Little did she know at the time that she’d soon be the one out there performing.
In 1949, Cookie read this ad in the Sarasota Herald: “Travel and Adventure. Will teach personable girl with nerve and courage to become a motorcycle exhibition rider in a Motor Drome.” Eighteen-year-old Cookie was offered the job and spent the next eight years riding the “Wall of Death.” Cookie got married, had a baby girl (who spent the first eight years of her life being watched by all the carnies and spending most of her time on the pony ride), divorced, and re-married.
Cookie was known as “Miss Cookie: Queen of the Daredevils.” While Cookie will tell you she loved riding the wall, it was a truly dangerous job, and she was fortunate not to have any major injuries during her years of doing so.
In 1959, Cookie and her husband purchased a Harley-Davidson dealership in Medford, Oregon. She and her husband started the Crater Cruisers Motorcycle Club, and Cookie served as a member and state director of the Motor Maids. Throughout her career at the Motor Drome and her time as a Harley dealer, Cookie encouraged many people—women and men—to become riders. Her love of motorcycling never wavered, and she continually shared that love with everyone she came in contact with.
In the mid-1960s, Cookie divorced for a second time when she and her husband closed the dealership and went their separate ways. She continued her involvement in motorcycling and has since ridden in just about every charity ride available, benefiting such organizations as Muscular Dystrophy, March of Dimes, Shriners Hospital for Children, Easter Seals and many others.
In 1982, Cookie started a chapter of the Gold Wing Road Riders of America in Medford, OR. It was through this group that she met Bob Crum. Bob was the Northern California State director for the Gold Wing Road Riders of America. En route to Medford for a Rally, he had a flat tire. He had his member directory handy, and found Cookie at home. She offered him a refuge for the night, and he’s apparently never left. The two were married aboard their Gold Wings at the MGM Grand in Reno, sealing her fate of being “Cookie Crum.”
Cookie always made friends on two wheels through her continued involvement. She was a Charter Life Member of the A.M.A. and was a member of the Sand Slingers Motorcycle Club of Sarasota, FL; Crater Cruisers Motorcycle Club of Medford, OR; the South Oregon FLH Dressers Motorcycle Club; Rogue Valley Road Riders & GWRRA Chapter C in Medford, OR; the Motor Maids; Retreads; and she was Goldwing Touring Association member #3. She was even “adopted” by the Rose City, OR H.O.G. Chapter.
It was with heavy hearts that we said goodbye to Cookie in 2015. Find out more about the life of this inspiring woman and the legacy she left behind, in the Sturgis Rider News Blog article “Queen of Hearts – The Story of Cookie Crum.” and is missed deeply.