Women's Wrestling Star Lillian Ellison, 84

"I think the key to why she was able to break through was her strong business sense," said Ruth Leitman, director of the "Lipstick & Dynamite" documentary. "She came from very humble beginnings. She had a strong sense of herself."

Women's wrestling was illegal in many states, but Ms. Ellison's popularity helped it gain wider acceptance. In 1972, she was the first woman to appear at Madison Square Garden after New York rescinded a ban on female wrestling.

Ms. Ellison remained busy well into her 60s and 70s. In 1984, she appeared in a match on MTV that was dubbed "The Brawl to End It All" and was hyped by pop star Cyndi Lauper. Wearing a mask and wrestling under the name "The Spider Lady," Ms. Ellison triumphed over Wendi Richter, who angrily tore off Ms. Ellison's mask at the match's end.

Outside the ring, Ms. Ellison's life was just as colorful. She married and had a daughter when she was 14 and would marry and divorce four more times. After dating country-music star Hank Williams Sr. for a year, she turned down his marriage proposal.

She was a friend of rock-and-roller Jerry Lee Lewis and, according to her 2003 autobiography, "The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle," she knew Elvis Presley when he was still a truck driver in Memphis. She wrote that Elvis was considering a career in wrestling. She told him to stick with music.

Ms. Ellison had a wrestling school in South Carolina, and for many years, she shared a home with wrestlers Johnnie Mae Young and Katie Glass, a midget who performed as Diamond Lil. Among her friends was wrestling star Andre the Giant, who liked to visit Ms. Ellison at Christmas, when she often invited midget wrestlers to dress as elves.

Survivors include her daughter, Maryetta Austin of Conway, S.C.; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Ms. Ellison remained in remarkable physical shape even as her injuries came to include a broken neck, broken collarbones, a dislocated knee, dislocated shoulder and countless broken fingers, toes and ribs.

When she was past 80, she kept a suitcase packed in case a call came, asking her to climb through the ropes again.