- As a child she was often so ill--at one time or another she contracted polio, measles, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox and double pneumonia--and bedridden so often that it was thought she would never be able to walk. Polio crippled her so badly that she was home-schooled for the first four years because she had to wear a leg brace that made it virtually impossible for her to walk to school.
- Won three Olympic gold medals in 1960 (100-m. dash, 200-m. dash, 4x100-m. relay), and a bronze in 1956 (4x100-m. relay).
- Inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, 1983 (charter member).
- Pictured on a USA 23¢ definitive (regular-issue) stamp in the Distinguished Americans series, issued 14 July 2004 in booklets and sheets.
- Children: Yolanda (born 1958), Djuanna (1964), Robert Jr. (1965), and Xurry (1971).
- A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
- There were 22 children in her family. She was the 20th.
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