Abbye Stockton, a pioneer of female weightlifters who helped establish the popularity of Muscle Beach and inspired women through columns in a fitness magazine, died June 26 in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 88.

Born in Santa Monica, and known throughout her life as “pudgy” for her baby fat, Stockton was a 19-year-old telephone operator in the late 1930s when she and future husband, Les, began frequenting the area just south of the Santa Monica Pier established for those devoted to “physical culture.”

The couple, who married in 1941, performed various routines at Muscle Beach, including the “high press,” in which she lifted a 100-pound barbell over her head while balancing atop her husband’s hands.

Stockton organized the first Amateur Athletic Union-sanctioned weightlifting competition for women in 1947 and wrote a column in Strength and Health magazine from 1944 to 1954.

A 5-foot-1, 115-pound blond, Stockton drew admiring stares and whistles on Muscle Beach. The two-piece bathing suits she wore added to her allure. Stockton also attracted the attention of newspaper and magazine photographers, appearing on the cover of more than 40 magazines.

After World War II, the Stocktons did occasional exhibition shows. In 1950, they opened the Stockton Studios, adjacent men’s and women’s gyms.