Kasey Rogers

April 14, 2017 11:01 AM

Hitchcock fans might recognize Kasey Rogers as the ex-wife doomed as soon as strangers met on a train, Bewitched fans might recognize as Darren's boss's second wife Louise Tate*. But after all that, she became involved with motorcycles after her young son began riding and this led her to motocross racing. In 1972, she began writing a Powder Puff column for Modern Cycle Magazine and did feature stories on the mini-cycle nationals and other racing events, and eventually she worked with the American Motocross Association to establish PURR ("PowderPuffs Unlimited Riders and Racers"), bringing women into the male-dominated sport, in 1974 with a national event sponsored by Yamaha (original program pdf ). PURR would later evolve into what is now motocross's Women's Pro-Class division.

* or the second woman to play the same wife, as was apparently more common on the show than I realized

More links:
2006 Kasey Rogers obituary in Motocross Action Magazine, bewitched.net, L.A. Times
ZL. A Brief History of the First Women’s Motocross Division

posted by MCMikeNamara (5 comments total)

My niece-in-law is #1 in the USA in her age group, and last weekend I went to my first motocross event. She's so far ahead of the other girls that she also competes against boys her age and women much older than her. It's likely that as she and other girls age up and become bigger names on the scene, there will be more girls under them, since they'll have someone to look up to.

I love that there's a Bewitched angle into motocross, because I loved Bewitched as a kid, and my in-laws and their moto scene are strange and scary to my coastal wimpy self.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 11:18 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

Not to pick nits, but if she had been an ex-wife, there would have been no need to murder her. It is her refusal to give her husband a divorce that makes him wish she were dead.
posted by pasici at 2:28 PM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

(Argh, I knew somebody was going to call me out on this; when I read the draft, I realized it was inaccurate but forgot to change it.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:15 PM on April 14, 2017

Inspiration.
posted by bongo_x at 5:50 PM on April 15, 2017

I was only a little guy but I can remember her as Julie Anderson on "Peyton Place". A few scenes with Barbara Perkins (Betty Anderson) are still stuck in my head for some reason. Maybe because I had to "sneak watch" PP because my Catholic school had condemned the program.

I never knew she was in "Strangers...." Guess what I'm watching tonight?
posted by james33 at 7:12 AM on April 16, 2017