Barbara Flowers, Choreographer For Ice Skaters Sumners, Harding

Millions of people have thrilled at the graceful maneuvers of champion figure skaters Rosalyn Sumners and Tonya Harding.

But off the ice, unseen by the audience, was a woman who helped them to their championship performances.

Her name was Barbara Flowers, and she died of cancer Saturday at 45 after battling the disease for nearly a decade.

Her friends and family say it was testament to her courage that she lived as long and as well as she did.

"Her strength of character carried her through," said Terry Green, secretary-treasurer of the corporation that owns the Highland Ice Arena in North Seattle, where Ms. Flowers frequently worked.

John McBride, manager at the Valley Ice Arena near Beaverton, Ore., said her loss will be felt throughout the skating world. "She was a nice lady. Very talented. It is a big loss," he said.

"She was a charismatic person whose warmth, wit, humor and loving nature touched the heart of anyone she came in contact with," said her sister, Penny McGehee.

What may have been one of the best descriptions of her work appeared in a front-page article in the Everett Herald in February 1992. It was written by Larry Henry, a sportswriter who came to know Ms. Flowers through covering figure-skating competitions.

"This is a tough story to write," Henry wrote then.

"There are no winners or losers. No heroes or goats. There is courage . . . The courage to laugh when you're dying. Barbara Flowers of Brier has cancer. `The prognosis is terminal,' she says. So, what can you do? She laughs," he continued.

Ms. Flowers was a choreographer for skaters whose skills ranged from beginner to medalist. They included Sumners, a 1984 Olympian from Edmonds, and Harding, 1991 U.S. figure-skating champion from Portland.

Ms. Flowers was born Aug. 20, 1948, in Lafayette, La., and began dancing at 3. She was a graduate of Our Lady of Fatima High School in Lafayette and attended the University of the Southwest in that city. In 1969, she moved to Honolulu and formed the Flowers Dance School while continuing her own dance training at the University of Hawaii.

She was an active member of the Hawaii State Dance Council. She moved to Washington state 19 years ago with her former husband.

After arriving here, she taught for the British Academy of Dance, Ewajo Centre, the Chettici Council on Ballet and the Cornish School for the Arts. She choreographed "Rhapsody on Ice" for the Oregon Symphony and held a dance master's degree.

Survivors include her parents, Jasmine and Duke Tanory of Lafayette; three sons, Jeremy, Zachary and Austin of Brier; three brothers, Joe and Richard of Lafayette and John Tanory of Santa Barbara, Calif.; and three sisters, Tena Hall of Waseca, Minn., Penny McGehee of Santa Barbara and Lisa Boudreaux of Baton Rouge, La.

Funeral arrangements were made through the Beck Funeral Home in Edmonds. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. tomorrow at St. John Vianney Church in Bothell.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be sent to any SeaFirst Bank for the Barbara Flowers Artistic Award, which is to be awarded in her honor in a future West Coast figure-skating competition.