The automotive world recently mourned the loss of Ms. Donna Mae Mims, Don Yenko’s “Girl Friday” who succumbed to the depilating effects of a stroke at Pittsburgh, PA’s Mercy Hospital, on October 6, 2009. From the years 1961 to 1975 pert and pretty Donna Mae functioned as Executive Assistant at Yenko Sportscars, Inc. and was a key figure in the creation of the Yenko Chevrolet Supercar legend. Known as the “Pink Lady,” Mims was an automotive icon in her own right becoming the SCCA’s first Female Driving Champion when she captured the 1963 B/Production title driving her pink, Triumph “Bug Eye” Sprite. “I’m pretty proud of that,” she would later say with her infectious grin!
 

Born July 1, 1927 to Margaret and George Warnock, Donna Mae grew up around the Greater Pittsburgh, PA area most of her life. “My mother wanted me to be a teacher, but I did not want to teach. My father wanted me to be a scientist but I ended up doing neither. I quit school, taught myself shorthand, and became an executive secretary at Pittsburgh’s Blawnox Steel Company!”

Around 1958, Mims and her husband Mike bought a one-year-old 1957 Corvette. “Those were the days when you raced the car you drove. At first we took turns driving. Then eventually everyone agreed that I was the better driver, and that’s how I got started in racing!”
“In 1958, the couple bought one of the new Fuelie Corvette roadsters from an energetic young salesman named Don Yenko after meeting him at a Steel Cities Region SCCA meeting, and so began a lifelong friendship/business relationship with the Pennsylvania racer-new car dealer-supercar constructor. Regarding her job at Yenko Sportscars, Inc, Mims once commented “You know, the fourteen years I worked with Don there was never a dull moment. All we did was talk about cars, prepare cars, and race cars. We were on a first name basis with the executives at Chevrolet Division, and knew the biggest names in the racing business. We used to call Yenko Chevrolet the “un-biggest Chevrolet Dealership in the country!”

“Building the Yenko Corvair Stingers was really a marvel when you consider Yenko Chevrolet was kind of the garage that “Jack” built. Walking through the “factory,” you had to step aside to avoid tripping over a manifold or back up into an engine casing while one of the mechanics yells at you to watch out because you’re about to step on some valve guides. We called it “organized chaos,” but we were one big happy family. It was definitely the best job I ever had!”

Memorial services were held for Donna Mae Mims on October 10-11, 2009, at McMurray, PA’s Beinhauer’s Funeral Home. Dressed in one of her pink driving suits, and placed behind the wheel of her pink 1979 Corvette, Donna Mae Mims bid her friends adieu for the last and final time.

Submitted by Bob McClurg.