Marty Ravellette was born in Goodland, Indiana without arms.
22 Facts About Marty Ravellette
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Marty Ravellette attended Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network in Allentown, Pennsylvania as an infant.
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Later divorced, Marty Ravellette moved to Teaneck, New Jersey and then Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he rescued an elderly woman in a burning car and again won national recognition.
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Marty Ravellette's life is featured in a 2004 documentary, No Arms Needed: A Hero Among Us.
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Marty Ravellette died in an auto accident in Eli Whitney, North Carolina three years later, in 2007.
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Marty Ravellette was the fourth child of the farm family of Ernest D Ravellette and Laurene Ravellette.
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Marty Ravellette favored his left foot similar to left handed people.
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At age 11, Marty Ravellette suffered burns from a fire accident.
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At age 16, Marty Ravellette rejoined his family partly because he was a discipline problem, but he had in fact been initially barred from attending the public high school by the contemporary public school principle equating physical handicaps with mental handicaps.
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Marty Ravellette's mother sued the school and produced transcripts from his public school years while living at Good Shepherd in Allentown.
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Marty Ravellette credited his rebelliousness with not being afraid of work, an attribute he said he developed from working on a farm, where his family did not have running water.
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At one point, Marty Ravellette's job was to fill water troughs from a hand pump.
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In San Diego, Marty Ravellette began to work in a variety of jobs.
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The incident was covered nationally by Associated Press and was read by JoBeth Johnson in Florida, who struck up a long-distance relationship with Marty Ravellette that grew to a marriage after Marty Ravellette moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1963.
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In 1967, after attending community college, Marty Ravellette moved to San Diego, where he lived in a boarding house, and performed parlor tricks.
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In 1991, Marty Ravellette moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he won North Carolina's Disabled Citizen of the Year in 1994 while running a landscaping business, Hands on Landscaping.
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Marty Ravellette again gained national fame when he rescued an elderly lady from a burning vehicle.
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Marty Ravellette appeared on several national television shows, including Discovery Channel, which won an Award of Merit by Carolina Silver Reels and other shows though initially he had sought no publicity.
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Marty Ravellette began to speak publicly, including as a frequent guest at a journalism class of Chuck Stone at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and elsewhere, using stories of his life and physical challenges to underpin larger lessons on the benefits of diversity, justice, equality, and the unity of humankind.
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On November 12,2007, Marty Ravellette was in a car accident in southern Alamance County, North Carolina at Highway 87, where Eli Whitney, North Carolina is located.
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Marty Ravellette failed to yield to an oncoming lumber truck and was ejected from the vehicle.
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Marty Ravellette is buried at Maplewood Cemetery, Durham, North Carolina.