INDIANAPOLIS — Mimi DeMore has never been a woman to back away from a challenge, turn away a new opportunity or to let any timeworn, gender stereotypes stop her from that palpably contagious sense of adventure that consumes her.
DeMore is 74 now, and she has lived quite an eclectic life. From the Peace Corps to politics to archeological digs. From museum guru to world traveler to earning a master's degree in her 50s.
Recently, she's decided to try to master her grandmother's authentic Italian dishes, and she has when it comes to her creamy shrimp primavera. DeMore still works part-time score testing for a national company. And she still travels the world.
But DeMore's beginnings as a woman ready for a challenge really started 50 years ago when, at the age of 24, she became one of the first women to work as a "yellow shirt" in the pits at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
DeMore was a young, married, statistical clerk for the state when she saw the ad in the Indianapolis Star. For the first time in its 67 years of existence, IMS was accepting applications from women to work on the track's safety patrol. DeMore was very familiar with that job.
Her father, Salvatore, spent 35 years on the IMS safety patrol. When word started spreading around the track that women would be allowed to apply for the force, there was no question in Salvatore's mind which one of his daughters would be the perfect fit.
DeMore is the second oldest of eight children, three girls and then five boys, born to Salvatore and his wife, Patricia, who raised their children on the south side of Indy. DeMore was always the most outgoing of her siblings, the one who liked to try new things.
"I was looking for an adventure. I mean, I had big dreams and big thoughts," DeMore says. "And this was an opportunity for me. Don't turn away opportunities, so I said, 'Why not?'"
DeMore walked confidently into the offices at the Speedway for her interview, and "I must have said the right thing," she says. "I think I was pretty enthusiastic. And they said, 'Yes.'"
Mimi DeMore holds a photo of herself working as a yellow shirt in the pits at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1976. DeMore was among a handful of women to be the first female yellow shirts at the track. Photographed on Monday, May 4, 2026 at her home in Noblesville.
And then they gave DeMore her assignment. "Would you like to work in the pits?"
"And I said, 'Oh yes, I think so,'" she says. "People wait for years to get to do that."
DeMore was one of the first women in history to be inside the pits at IMS, a place at the track where women, historically, were not allowed, except for a photographer or a lone wife or girlfriend who snuck in. The restriction on women had been lifted in 1971, but still few had made it over.
At that 1976 Indy 500, DeMore stood proudly at the pit gates checking passes, and she realized what the fuss was all about. She realized what her father had loved so much about working at the Speedway.
Amid the fanfare and chaos of that first spectacular race, won by Johnny Rutherford in a rain-shortened run, DeMore didn't get one negative comment about being a woman in a yellow shirt, working the pits.
"Of course, I was pretty confident," DeMore says, smiling. "The guys were really great, and I felt very welcomed. And I did a lot of really fun things."
'You don't think about making history'
Scribbled on a small piece of paper, front and back, are the memories DeMore doesn't want to forget to talk about during this interview that she can't believe is happening. She knows she was a trailblazer but, at the time, it didn't really feel like that.
When the IMS safety patrol converged on the track for its first race in 1909, it was made up of members of the National Guard. It wasn't until 1949 when IMS started taking applications from civilians to be part of its force, but only men were allowed to apply.
Those men wore dark blue, long-sleeved, wool shirts buttoned up to their necks with light blue ties. Their pants were dressy. And atop their heads, they wore pith helmets painted silver for the everyday safety patrol member and gold for patrol supervisors.
As the Women's Liberation Movement began making waves throughout the country, in 1976, IMS decided to allow women to be part of its safety patrol. By that time, the blue uniforms had disappeared. Baseball caps had replaced the pith helmets and the term “yellow shirt” had come into vogue.
There were just a handful of women who were part of the 2,400-member yellow shirt brigade that year. Just four worked in the pits. And DeMore was one of them.
At the 1976 Indy 500, DeMore was interviewed on the radio, and she was part of an Indianapolis Star story on the first female members of the IMS safety patrol.
"But the thing is that when you're busy working, you don't think about making history," DeMore says. "I had a great time. But pretty much after you're the first, then there's nothing after that. I mean, you know, I just went back and worked."
A photo of Mimi DeMore (right corner) working in the pits during the month of May in 1976. Photographed on Monday, May 4, 2026 at her home in Noblesville.
She sniffed out fake passes
Being a yellow shirt wasn't an easy gig, getting up at 3:30 in the morning to make it to the track by 5 a.m. to stand in the sun in what were then yellow cotton shirts, which didn't have that high-tech cooling fabric.
"Sunburn was a big problem, but again, it was so much fun," DeMore says. "I just loved it."
DeMore had grown up in Indy where May was the most magical month of the year. Her family would have big picnics, eating all kinds of delicious food as they listened to the Indy 500 on the radio.
But none of that had prepared DeMore for what it was like to actually be on the front line at the greatest spectacle in racing.
Listening to Jim Nabors sing "Back Home in Indiana," was incredible, DeMore says. As was getting to rub elbows with Paul Newman "who had the bluest eyes" and the kiss she got from James Garner.
"He's coming through the gate, and one of the guys I worked with said, 'You want to kiss these ladies?'" DeMore says. "And James goes, 'Oh, sure.' And I thought, 'Oh, my goodness.' You really feel special."
Mimi DeMore poses for a photo on Monday, May 4, 2026 at her home in Noblesville. DeMore was among a handful of women to be the first female yellow shirts at the track. Photographed on Monday, May 4, 2026 at her home in Noblesville.
But DeMore's job as a yellow shirt was much more than the celebrities. It was hard work, and DeMore excelled. When people would jump the fence, "we'd go after them and get them back on the other side," she says.
When DeMore spotted fake passes coming through, she alerted the higher-ups at the track. In 1976, the tickets were made out of paper, and each had a different number.
"And so passes were coming through with the same number on them, so I told my boss, and we watched for them then," DeMore says. "And I got a reward from the Speedway for that, a little bonus for catching all these fake passes."
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DeMore says her experience as a yellow shirt was priceless. She loved the drama, the beautiful people walking by and that sound of those legendary words: "Gentlemen, start your engines." Standing there listening to 350,000 people cheer was unbelievable.
In her second year as a yellow shirt, DeMore got to watch another woman make history at the track when Janet Guthrie became the first woman to qualify for and race in the Indianapolis 500 in 1977.
"I thought that was great then, all these doors opening for women," DeMore says. "But now, things have come such a long way."
'I'm proud that I was one of the first'
Today, 27% of the IMS safety patrol yellow shirt crew are women. Being one of the first women to take the track as a yellow shirt is something DeMore will always cherish, especially because her run was brief.
On race day, May 27, 1979, three years after her first Indy 500, DeMore was in the hospital having twin boys, Andrew and Adam. "You can't make this up," DeMore says, laughing.
From there, DeMore was plenty busy raising her boys, and being a yellow shirt faded from her life.
After her yellow shirt career was over, DeMore started working at the Indiana State Museum then decided to go back to college to finish her bachelor's degree. She worked in the museum field for more than 25 years as a conservation tech, teaching historical housekeeping and taking care of collections.
When she was 50, DeMore went to Ball State University to get her graduate degree in anthropology. While in grad school, she joined the Peace Corps and was stationed in Uzbekistan. She ran for political office, Noblesville City Council, Hamilton County Commissioner and Noblesville Township Trustee Board as a Democrat.
Mimi DeMore holds a photo of herself working as a yellow shirt in the pits at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1976. DeMore was among a handful of women to be the first female yellow shirts at the track. Photographed on Monday, May 4, 2026 at her home in Noblesville.
She went on two mission trips with her church, one to Haiti and one to Guatemala. She was an officer in the Italian Society of Indiana. And she was on the famous peccary pig dig in Jasper, Ind., in 2013 when researchers with the Indiana State Museum uncovered the skeleton of a 50,000-year-old flat-headed peccary.
"I've done a lot of great things in my life," DeMore says, "and I still have things to do."
In the 50 years since she stood on safety patrol at pit gates at the age of 24 with her whole life ahead of her, DeMore has been back to IMS just a couple of times. And, a lot has changed.
Of course, what has changed the most are those yellow shirts. All those women wearing yellow.
"I'm proud, you know, of any part I played in all that," DeMore says. "But really, I was just looking for my next adventure."
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: This Indy 500 job was for men only. Mimi DeMore changed that
