This drawing began with a phone call to Ginger Stanley, the underwater double for actresses Julia Adams and Lori Nelson in the classic Universal horror films Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and Revenge of the Creature (1955), respectively. She also doubled for Esther Williams in Jupiter's Darling (1955).

My conversations with Ginger as the drawing progressed register in my memory like a dream. Once, when I suggested she should charge for her autographs, she said, "I wouldn't charge you. You're a friend." Wow! A friend of the woman I had watched as a kid swim with the world's coolest monster! As we talked, I learned her physical feats (which also included a one-time underwater swim record) only complemented her personal character. Gracious and unassuming, she was truly a lady in the time-honored sense of that word, and I was honored to know her.

Ginger described the portrait as "beautiful," but I'm afraid it does not do her justice.