Ellen Elizabeth Oneal (Deason) Obituary (1959 - 2020)

Born May 14, 1959, Ellen Elizabeth Oneal (Deason) attended Crawford High School in San Diego, CA. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Ellen Elizabeth Oneal (deason).

Graduation Year	Class of 1977
Date of Birth	May 14, 1959
Date of Passing	Oct 12, 2020
About	Ellen O’Neal – The Greatest Woman Freestyle Skateboarder in the 1970s. Ellen was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2014. Ellen O’Neal is the godmother of female pro skateboarding who proved that skaters aren’t just a group of delinquents living in Venice Beach and helped bring the sport into the mainstream by skating on the Wonder Woman TV show. Born and raised in Southern California, She had only been skating for a year before she was sponsored by Gordon & Smith, Bennett Trucks, and Vans, then added Kryptonics Wheels and Hang Ten Apparel the following year. She placed third in Women’s Freestyle behind Ellen Berryman and (2013 Hall Of Fame inductee) Laura Thornhill at the ’76 California Free Former Skateboard World Championships in Long Beach and returned the following year in September of ’77 to edge out Laura for second (still behind Ellen Berryman). With her long blonde hair and era-accurate short shorts, Ellen’s photos from Skateboarder Magazine are also some of the most iconic girl skater photos ever shot, and in 2012, Complex Magazine named her number four in their “Sexiest Female Skateboarders” list. In the ’04 book, The Legacy of Warren Bolster, Warren Bolster (RIP) offered this on Ellen: “She invented her own variations on many maneuvers and added grace, style, and composure to the circuit.”