Ricky Slavin
(April 15, 1931 – November 19, 1986)
Rhoda Rita “Ricky” Slavin (later Katerinsky) was a New York fan, active beginning in 1946. She attended Phillycon 1946 and Philcon, the 1947 Worldcon. She was a member of the QSFL, a founding member and secretary of the Centaurian League in 1948.
She burst onto the fan scene as a 15-year-old, attending the first, organizational, meeting of ESFA in April 1946. Joe Kennedy wrote in “After the Atom”:
The first time fifteen-year-old Ricky Slavin came to ESFA, I got the impression that she was a nice, innocent, slightly naive kid. Hence I received something of a jolt at the following meeting, during the course of which she calmly blew a lungful of cigarette smoke into my eyes and asked me whether I was a virgin. Ricky Slavin was dark-haired, plump, and pretty. She soon got to know almost every stefnist of importance in the metropolitan area, and ESFA promptly elected her secretary. Her contributions to a serious discussion were keen, almost brilliant. ESFA males soon discovered that to arouse her wrath was like chucking a torch into a pile of TNT.
She feuded with Sam Moskowitz, who kicked her out of ESFA, and had altercations with Joe Schaumburger, Lloyd Alpaugh, Ron Maddox, George Fox and Kennedy, all of whom appear to have deserved her fury. Despite that, Kennedy wrote, “She is, without doubt, one of the most real personalities I have ever met, and somehow I have always liked her.” (See “After the Atom” for more.)
She married Sigmund Katerinsky and had two children, Judith and Alan; Al is also a fan.
| Person | 1931—1986 |
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