When my sister and I were six, we had a swim teacher at Camp Yomi who used to call my sister Esther Williams because of the graceful way that she cupped her hands when she did the crawl (now called the Freestyle). My sister still does that.

“Hey Esther,” the swim teacher used to call out to her while she was swimming. “She looks just like Esther Williams.” The anology was lost on us at the time. But later we learned who she was. I can’t remember when I first saw Esther Williams on screen. But I’ve always been a fan. And not just because of my sister and this memory of an early childhood swim teacher.

Esther Williams died yesterday. The work she did with director Busby Berkeley was pretty darn brilliant. She once said her favorite co-star was the water. The aquatic star of the screen died in her sleep in Los Angeles. She was 91.