Diane Struble on Lake George in 1959, the summer after she became the first person to swim the length of the lake. (Photo provided, used with permission)

I consider myself fortunate if I can swim 25 yards, if you call flailing around like a one-legged chicken “swimming.” I am in awe of marathon swimmers, those who can churn along for mile upon mile, hour upon hour, to cross, say, the English Channel.

Some of these swimmers are bathed in fame (old-timers will remember Johnny Weismuller), and most have been men. Others, women mainly, have been relegated to the far recesses of history’s closet. So it is a welcome revelation to discover that one such individual did gain suitable recognition, and that she did it by swimming the length of the Adirondacks’ own Lake George. Diane Struble finished the 32-mile upstream swim in 35 hours and 30 minutes on Aug. 23, 1958. She was the first person to do so. Through 2017, only 11 people — five of them women — had duplicated the feat.

Struble’s impressive story is told in “Called by the Water,” authored by her daughter Gwenne Rippon (second printing, 2021). Publisher is the Lake George Historical Association, whose flyer tells us the book is the first in their “Called by the Water” series, intended to support the LGHA’s exhibition of the same name at the Lake George Institute of History, Art and Science.

Rippon and her husband, Don Butler — who wrote a touching foreword — are dairy farmers in Schuylerville, a few miles southeast of Lake George. Herself a snowshoeing champion who earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, she tells her mother’s story in a spare but conversational style with obvious pride and admiration; one chapter is titled “My Mother, the Heroine.” But both accolades are well deserved.

Struble, 25 at the time, contended with a turbulent personal life, gender skepticism, two failed attempts, intrusive spectators whose boat fumes nearly sickened her, darkness, and the lake itself — cold even in August, choppy, schizophrenic. By the time she began her ultimately successful swim, at the north end of the lake (a plaque on “Diane’s Rock” marks the spot), armored “with five pounds of grease to stay warm,” the preternatural extrovert had become something of a celebrity. By the time she finished a day and a quarter later–and 15.5 pounds lighter — at the beach in Lake George village, she was definitely one, welcomed by dignitaries, radio and newspaper personalities, and reportedly at the time the biggest crowd ever to assemble in Lake George. (This was before those revved-up motorcycle jamborees, remember; Lake George was then only on the cusp of becoming one of America’s go-to destinations.) The next day, she was flown to New York City to appear on NBC’s The Today Show.

Diane Struble executed other marathon swims, including a perilous one from Burlington, Vermont, to Plattsburgh across an angry Lake Champlain; a helpful table indicates these, while numerous family and media photos augment the text. The seemingly indestructible athlete and mother succumbed to cancer in 2006, at age 73. She was finally inducted, posthumously, into the International Marathon Swimmers Hall of Fame just last weekend.

“Called by the Water” can be purchased from the LGHA at www.lakegeorgehistorical.org or 518-668-5044. As noted above, proceeds support the association’s exhibition that shares its name with the book’s.