SHARON and GORDON BASINGER Kyoshi 7th Dan and Sensei 4th Dan
Sharon Basinger Sensei
R. Gordon Basinger Sensei
_________________________
SHARON BASINGER, SENSEI
Continuous training: Basinger Sensei is very fortunate to have
frequent opportunities to personally study with her teacher Grand Master, Seikichi Iha, Hanshi 10th Dan (right). Plus, she has never missed any of his annual
National Training Seminars in Lansing, Michigan. The priceless
benefits are passed on to her students. Sensei Iha also
conducts training seminars at Karate STL at least once a year.
Basinger Sensei was
honored to train with Sensei Iha's teacher, late Grand Master Katsuya
Miyahira (1918-2010), during his 1996 Lansing, Michigan visit, and at
his dojo (left) when competing in the 1997
televised Okinawa
Karate & Kobudo (weapons) World Tournament where she reached
the finals in her division. Over 2,000 competitors from 50
countries
commemorated the grand opening of the impressive Kenritsu Budokan
(Okinawa
Prefectural Hall of Martial Arts - right). She then coached in the
2009 Okinawa Traditional Karatedo World Tournament, performed in
demonstrations and trained in the masters' seminars. Basinger was
also a proud participant in the 2014 Okinawa Shorinryu Karate &
Kobudo Seminar & Memorial Demonstration, honoring the
life of Miyahira Sensei. She again traveled to Okinawa in 2019,
along with about 200 Beikoku Shidokan students, to celebrate the 88th
birthday/year (Tookachi) of her teacher, Sensei Iha. During that
trip, she was honored to participate in the historical reenactment of
the 1938 photo of Gusukuma Sensei teaching his students in the
courtyard of Shuri Castle.
Background:
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Basinger Sensei's initial
martial arts training was Judo and Matsubayashiryu Karate as a
teenager, neither of which was continued to black belt. Later in
life while
living in Dallas, Texas, she began studying Shidokan Shorinryu
Karatedo. She and her husband returned home in 1995 and, fully
sanctioned by Iha Sensei, opened their Shidokan dojo in
Maryland Heights, Missouri -- first at Westport Athletic Club, then
Pattonville School District, then Maryland Heights Centre. Since
May, 2020, she teaches at her home dojo. Among her previous
careers: Licensed Missouri (commercial) real
estate broker; commercial and multi-family residential property manager; commercial interior remodeler/designer.
She has one daughter from a previous marriage. And her
deceased husband, Gordon, gave her four step-daughters. She
enjoys meditating, reading, gardening, traveling and spending time with
family (not necessarily in that order).
Some Favorite Quotes:*- To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill.
- Our
greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
- It takes more courage to walk away than to stay and fight.
- The surest way to reveal one's character is not through adversity but by giving them power.
- The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.
- We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
- Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.
- The barriers of human achievement lie only in the mind.
- If your hand goes forth, withhold your anger. If your anger goes forth, withhold your hand.
- Courage
is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
- Self-defense is meeting an attack with only enough force to stop the
attack and escape. When the defender overpowers the attacker, then continues, the defender becomes the attacker.
- One
hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove,
what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in my bank
account, nor what my clothes looked
like. But the world may be a little better because
I was important in
the life of a child.
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R. GORDON BASINGER, SENSEI (1940-2002)
Tragically, Karate STL's Gordon Basinger, died of complications
from cancer on December 27, 2002, at age 62. Husband of Sharon Basinger,
he was also a highly
regarded teacher and friend to many at Karate STL, as well as a
respected member of the Beikoku Shidokan Karatedo Association.
He had previously trained in Kenpo, later Tae Kwon
Do. Then he and his wife began training in Shidokan Shorinryu
Karate in 1989 in Dallas, Texas. Upon returning home to St. Louis
in 1995, the Basingers opened their Shidokan dojo and initially shared
in the
teaching. The demands of his business began to
somewhat limit his availability in the dojo but when possible
he offered time and support until illness further restricted him.
Before his death the Basingers trained and were promoted through
the ranks together to 4th Dan.
Background:
Sensei Gordon Basinger was born in Arkansas, where he also attended college
and received a degree in psychology. He resided in St.
Louis, Missouri, most of his adult life. He
was an esteemed member of the aviation industry for over 30 years --
starting as an aircraft mechanic, then avionics technician, pilot,
flight
instructor, commercial airline pilot, and eventually president of his
own international aircraft sales businesses. He was also
accomplished in athletics including football through college, scuba
diving, tennis and racquetball.
Basinger's relentless illness began in the
1960s with Lyme Disease.*
Since Lyme Disease was unknown in the medical community, he went
untreated after consulting many specialists over the years, and
even checked into Mayo
Clinic in the 1970s, attempting to understand his symptoms, all to no
avail. By the time he was finally diagnosed and treatment was
accessible, the disease had crossed the blood-brain barrier thereby
advancing beyond the possibility of a
cure. His immune system became severely compromised
and, therefore, paved the way for cancer to take hold which was
diagnosed in
1997. He underwent various procedures and two years of
chemo-therapy, resulting in remission. In May, 2002, his cancer
returned and was soon diagnosed as terminal, even after additional
chemo-therapy. Sensei Sharon Basinger asks people to spread awareness
about this insidious disease. If symptoms (see below) are
not ignored, it now can be cured if treated early. She hopes to save
others from helplessly watching the suffering and deterioration of a loved one.
Karate STL student Kristina Carpenter, then age 14, said, "No one is ever gone until they are
forgotten." If true, he will be with us forever. He
lives on in the memory of those who respected, admired and loved
him. The lives he touched are drastically enhanced for having
known him.
* Lyme Disease symptoms are varied and
unpredictable, including flu-like symptoms and possibly a "bulls-eye" rash at the onset, possibly progressing to
facial paralysis, intermittent and often debilitating joint, muscle and skin pain;
extreme fatigue; heart and nervous system problems; vision, hearing, taste and
swallowing problems; insomnia; nausea; muscle/joint degeneration; a
recurring non-contagious skin rash which can be welt-like and
circular. It
is contracted by a bite from a very tiny, easily undetectable, deer
tick...and believed to be greatly underreported. For more info, go to
http://www.lymenet.org/ or the
CDC.
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