Gloria Callen

Gloria Marie Callen (December 21, 1923 – September 2, 2016) was an American backstroke swimmer. She was the 1942 Associated Press Athlete of the Year.

Callen was born in 1923 in Freeport, New York. She married Herbert Erskine Jones Jr. in 1944.

Callen set 35 American records and one world record in swimming, and won 13 American championships. Due to World War II, she was never able to compete in world championships or Olympic Games, even though she qualified for the 1940 Summer Olympics. She quit swimming when she went to college at Barnard College and joined the American Women's Voluntary Services.

Callen was one in a row of glamorous swimming champions, and was voted one of America's 13 best-dressed women by the New York's Fashion Academy.

In 1943, Al Sheehan recruited Callen to perform as part of the Aqua Follies, a water ballet show including diving acts.