[1][4] Born Mildred Bliss on August 5, 1915, in Coffeyville, Kansas, at age 15 she dropped out of school and began to work as a waitress on the Zuni Indian Reservation in Gallup, New Mexico.

[6]: 290 Prior to wrestling, she was an office stenographer by day, had outstanding muscle development, and was hoping to become a professional wrestler.

Changing her name to Mildred Burke, she defeated Clara Mortensen for the Women's World Championship in January 1937.

On the road, Wolfe acted as a father figure to the women he trained and managed, but he also earned a reputation as a womanizer because he repeatedly cheated on Burke.

Eight months later, Hoff named Wolfe as administrator and was approved by Franklin County Judge William Bryant.

[6]: 291  A memorandum dated August 20, 1953, was circulated by Wolfe, in which he boldly announced that he was the booker for Burke and her stable of 27 wrestlers.

Burke sat in the lobby of the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago as male dignitaries argued behind closed doors about her future.

In a letter to NWA members on November 4, 1953, Burke refuted Wolfe's claim that she would wrestle only one woman grappler.

Wolfe, however, used his influence to get her frozen from NWA members, and her promising run in the Southeast with Cowboy Luttrall and Paul Jones in 1954 fizzled.

She started International Women's Wrestlers Inc. with Bill Newman and the promotion had offices in New York City, San Francisco and Sydney, Australia.

[11] Among her students were WWE Hall of Famer The Fabulous Moolah, who she trained in the 1940s, and Canadian wrestler Rhonda Sing.

Burke died from a stroke[11] on February 18, 1989, in Northridge, California,[1] and was buried at the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

In 2009, Jeff Leen published a biography of Burke, titled The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend.