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SAN BRUNO, Calif., Mar 16, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Ann Calvello, who thrilled roller-derby audiences in California and elsewhere with her spray-painted hair and tattoos, has died at the age of 76.
Calvello, who had survived brain tumors and melanoma, died of liver cancer, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
On skates, Calvello, nicknamed "Banana Nose," was the bad girl of roller derby, the heavy to Joanie Weston's Blonde Bomber. She was known for her salty language, for painting her hair purple years before punk rock and for her tattoos and body piercing.
"She loved it when the fans hated her," Jerry Seltzer, owner of the San Francisco Bay Bombers, told the Chronicle.
Calvello was born in Rhode Island, the daughter of a career Navy man, and moved to San Francisco at the age of 12. She told interviewers that she was a teenage tomboy who loved to skate on the street and at a local roller rink.
When she was 18 she saw roller derby for the first time and signed up with the team.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
