At 73, Lady Dynamite not the average grandma 05/04/05 Louis Llovio

Ida Mae Selenkow, left, also known in her professional wrestling days as Ida Mae Martinez, leads Morton Cohen, center, and Ed Schlessel in a conga line April 27 at the Myerberg Senior Center. At barely five feet with a full head of hair that is an unusual shade of rose, bright pink pants, even brighter pink sunglasses and gold high heels, you wouldn't think 73-year-old great-grandmother Ida Mae Selenkow packed much of a punch.

You'd be wrong.

Selenkow - nicknamed Lady Dynamite - is not like other great-grandmothers.

Her life would read like a modern-day Charles Dickens' novel: A wild tale spun by a master storyteller.

But feel the vice-like grip of her handshake and you know each and every word she says is true.

She is the daughter of a prostitute.

She endured a childhood of sexual and physical abuse.

She was one of the first professional female wrestlers in the 1950s.

She survived two abusive marriages.

She is a nurse with a master's degree.

She is a country western yodeler who has recorded a CD and shared a stage with Ray Charles.

Selenkow spoke openly and matter- of-factly of her life to over 30 seniors at the Myerberg Senior Center in Pikesville April 27. Five seniors left during her uncensored talk. With those remaining, she led a conga line of seniors while singing "When the Saints Go Marching In."

One of the highs in Selenkow's life was her wrestling career.

It began in Houston. She moved there with her first husband, whom she described as an abusive alcoholic, when she was 17. While working as a waitress, she was approached by the cafe owner and offered a chance to become a wrestler. Selenkow jumped at the opportunity. She worked with a trainer for about nine months. Then, billed as Ida Mae Martinez, she spent her first night as a professional wrestler in the middle of a barroom riot in Columbus, Ohio.

"I broke ribs, lost a couple of teeth and had more bruises than I can remember," she said of her wrestling career. "I put 80,000 to 100,000 miles a year on an old Mercury I owned and I loved every minute of it." After only two years as a professional she was crowned wrestling champion of Mexico in 1952 and 1953 after a tour of Mexico. She fought in bull rings in Tampico, Monterey and Mexico City. That crown helped earn her a spot in the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in Schenectady, N.Y., after a nine- year career.

Her first marriage failed, but Selenkow remarried. She said her second husband turned out to be an alcoholic who was not only violent, but a gambler as well. They moved to Baltimore in 1961. Here, she had two daughters and earned her general equivalency diploma.

In 1975, Selenkow got her associate's degree in nursing from Catonsville Community College; her bachelor's at the University of Maryland in College Park in 1980 and her masters in 1990.

Over her 25-year nursing career she has been a psychiatric nurse, surgical nurse, nursed the first AIDS patient admitted to John Hopkins Hospital, nursed the homeless, worked as a home nurse in public housing units, worked at the Baltimore Detention Center and now works with the Maryland state penal system as a nurse in the prerelease units where inmates go eight months to a year before they are released from jail.

She has been inducted into the International Honor Society of Nursing.

After careers in wrestling and nursing, Selenkow decided on another adventure. In 1996, at 64, she decided to pursue another passion: Yodeling. She became a yodeling country music singer like her childhood heroes Roy Rogers and Patsy Montana. She recorded a CD, appeared on the Rosie O'Donnell show and was on the same bill as Ray Charles at Baltimore's 2001 Artscape - which she calls "her greatest accomplishment."

When not touring, she has been working on her autobiography and promoting a new documentary about the early women of wrestling.

"Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling" is set to premiere at the Maryland Film Festival May 6.

When asked what she wants to be remembered as, she said, "All of it."

"God gave me the gift of anger," she said. It's that anger that has been her motivation through her struggles, she said.