Two days ago, we relayed the story about a collector of autographed Sports Illustrated covers who was searching for an unidentified model from the Oct. 17, 1960 issue.

Scott Smith has 4,413 signatures of stars including Michael Jordan and Mickey Mantle on 2,913 SI covers, but the woman modeling sportswear and holding a kite, shown in the issue above, remained elusive. He contacted modeling agencies and the cover's photographer without success.

The Los Angeles Times has solved the mystery, and it comes with a sad ending:

Model Dolores Greer, 81, died last month on the same day that cover autograph collector Scott Smith was being interviewed by The Times for a story that was published Tuesday.

Her obituary notes that Greer was Miss Michigan in 1951, and she modeled for Life Magazine, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

A Times reader who had also been a model recognized Greer and alerted the newspaper. Then Greer's daughter, Robin Greer, an actress who appeared in Falcon Crest and Ryan's Hope, confirmed that Dolores was the SI cover model.

"Oh wow, it's her!" Robin Greer told the Times. "The thing that's so interesting that she was a big model back when you didn’t have super models that everybody knows their name. My mother was constantly on magazine and album covers. But darn, nobody knew who she was."

Smith was disappointed but sounded like he could appreciate the overview.

"Looking for her was a great journey and a lot of fun," he told the Times. "It was nice to finally identify her. I'm just sorry I can't put her in my collection."

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