HELEN WALLENDA

SARASOTA, Fla. -- (AP) -- Helen Kreis Wallenda -- the last member of the original four-member Great Wallendas high-wire troupe and frequent pinnacle of the famous Wallenda pyramid during decades on the high-wire -- died Thursday. She was 85.

She was just 17 when she climbed Karl Wallenda's shoulders in the debut performance of the Wallenda pyramid in Madison Square Garden. The year was 1928, and the Great Wallendas, just from Europe, brought the audience to its feet for 11 minutes of raucous approval.

The Wallendas traced their high-wire heritage to the 1600s and were known for walking wires strung between skyscrapers, over canyons and between speeding cars.

She retired in 1956, before tragedy hit the family of aerialists.

In 1962, a seven-person Wallenda pyramid fell in Detroit, killing two members of the troupe and paralyzing her adopted son Mario. Two years later, her sister Rietta Grotefent died in a fall from the wire.

In 1978, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Karl Wallenda -- her husband of 43 years -- fell to his death while walking a wire strung between two hotels.