Her father noticed her flair and picked her as the one to follow his path as a dentist. He trained her as his assistant with the expectation that she would go to dental school. Instead, Billie Jo decamped to Flagstaff’s Arizona State College, a school she knew nothing about other than that a friend was attending. “I loved my dad, and I loved my time in his office, but I knew dental school was not the right thing for me. That’s how I ended up in Arizona,” she said. “It was called Arizona State College and while I was there, it became Northern Arizona University. I absolutely loved it.” At NAU, Billie Jo majored in health and physical education. She took dance and movement classes as well as sports and music. “I couldn’t have made a better decision,” she said. With diploma in hand, she snagged a job as head of physical education at the Judson School, an exclusive boarding school in Paradise Valley. It was 1969, and the students lapped up her larger-than- life personality and new programs in polarity yoga, tai chi and ballet. After eight years, Billie Jo left the school, thanks to a former Judson School student who was staying at Elizabeth Arden’s Maine Chance, the pioneering destination spa once located at the southeastern base of Camelback Mountain. “She invited me to lunch and I saw this oasis in the desert,” Billie Jo said. “I went to the office and said, ‘Hi, I’m Billie Jo, and I’m inquiring about an exercise position. I’ve never taught an exercise class in my life, but I’m a P.E. teacher and have a dance background,’” she said. A few months later, Billie Jo’s phone rang. Maine Chance offered her a job that October, when the resort opened for the season. She was an immediate hit with guests who loved her sparkling personality and effective workouts. Unfortunately, after just two months, Billie Jo was diagnosed with malignant melanoma that required surgery. But a funny thing happened when she returned to the resort post-op. She became an inspiration. Not one to hide under longs sleeves, Billie Jo wore the scars on her right shoulder as badges of courage. With her positive attitude and steely resolve, she became a role model for women like second lady Happy Rockefeller, who came to meet Billie Jo when Happy was fighting breast cancer. Billie Jo went on to become head of the exercise department at Maine Chance and stayed for 17 years, until the spa closed in the early 90s. In that time, she also overcame cervical and breast cancers, maintaining her optimistic outlook and burnishing her reputation as an icon. “I stood up for myself and I helped thousands of women,” Billie Jo said. During that time, she also created a water- based workout program and a line of records, cassettes, books and videos that she would parlay into an international business. “I had a student at Judson School from Hawaii. When she graduated, she fell in love with a Japanese surfer boy. She married him, moved to Japan and wrote to say she was going to have a baby,” Billie Jo said. “I had just published my water exercise book, so I sent it to her and said, ‘Betty, this would be a great type of exercise for you to do while you’re pregnant.’” From her teenage days surfing the California waves to her turns as P.E. teacher, cultural ambassador, exercise visionary, cancer survivor, arts patron and beloved wife, Billie Jo has fought doggedly for her happy life, and she isn’t shy about letting the world know it. MAY/JUNE 2021 | 28 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA

“ There are no pretenses. Billie Jo as you see her is Billie Jo as she is. Always been that way,” said Judd Herberger ( below ), about his wife, shown at her and Judd’s induction into the Herberger Performing Arts & Broadcast Hall of Fame ( bottom right ) and in one of the exercise videos in the “Billie Jo Alive” series. FRONTDOORS MEDIA | 29 | MAY/JUNE 2021