Having befriended and helped out Virginia Mayhew Sensei in the last few years of her life, I take anything Yamada Shihan says with a hefty grain of salt. The sad fact that some Aikido Shihan (both men and women) want to gloss over her huge contributions to Aikido, The New York Aikikai or that she was the first US woman who went to Japan to study Aikido ( despite the claims of another woman Sensei) with both O'Sensei and Shoji Nishio among others is a travesty that I am going to help rectify one of these days.
Mayhew Sensei did not think herself to be anything special, so she shunned the spotlight. As long as I am alive and practicing, I am going to remind folks of her joyful spirit and love for Aikido and do my best to see she gets her due in the historical record of our Art.
Here's something for starters:
http://books.google.com/books?id=z9k...aikido&f=false
William Hazen