EARLY LIFE

Born in Dallas, Texas, on 27 May 1931, Folley moved with his family to Chandler, Arizona in 1942, where he grew up playing baseball. Upon joining the U.S. Army in 1948, he began boxing and won the 6th Army Championship within a year, going on to win the All-Army and All-Service titles. He saw active service during the Korean War, earning five battle stars, and was discharged from the U.S. Army with the rank of Sergeant in 1953.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

PERSONAL LIFE

Folley served as a member of the Chandler City Council, and raised a family of nine children with his wife Joella (1933–2011).

DEATH

Folley suffered severe head injuries in a motel swimming pool while visiting a friend in Tucson, Arizona on July 8, 1972, and died at the age of 41 in a local hospital shortly afterwards. His death was considered mysterious and subject to conspiracy theories until Marshall Terrill, a former reporter for The East Valley Tribune, tracked down official documents and an eyewitness in 2014. These sources revealed Folley had checked in at the motel under an alias with a longtime partner. Intoxicated, he dove into the pool after it had closed, and hit his head on a concrete partition.

LEGACY

The city of Chandler dedicated Zora Folley Memorial Park in his honor.

A biography, Zora Folley: The Distinguished Life and Mysterious Death of a Gentleman Boxer, was published in 2017.