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#2,721 · (Edited by Moderator)
CURTIS, MARGARET (Margaret Curtis)
United States
Born October 8, 1883
Died December 24, 1965
[Active in 1908]

"In 1908 she won the U.S. Open doubles tennis championship with Evelyn Sears, becoming the only woman to simultaneously hold the U.S. golf and tennis titles."

[From her wiki]

From the Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts area, she was the youngest of ten children. Her father was a colonel in the Union Army cavalry during the American Civil War. Her brother James Freeman Curtis became a lawyer in New York City, and was the Assistant United States Secretary of the Treasury under President William Howard Taft. Her cousin Laurence Curtis, who served as the second President of the United States Golf Association in 1897–98, encouraged the family to take up the game of golf. As a result, Margaret and her sister Harriot began playing golf at a young age and as young ladies became members of the Women's Golf Association of Massachusetts. Founded in 1900, it was the first state women's golf association in the United States.

In 1897, 13-year-old Curtis qualified fourth in her first appearance at the U.S. Women's Amateur. In 1906 her sister Harriot won the Championship. Although health problems had prevented Margaret from competing for several years, she captured her first of three U.S. championships in 1907 by beating her sister in the finals. That year she played in England and in a stroke-play tournament at Walton Heath, near London, she was leading playing partner May Hezlet by five stokes going into the final hole. Curtis hit her drive into gorse bush, a very spiny and dense evergreen shrub common throughout western Europe but unfamiliar to an American. Curtis ended up taking a disastrous 13 on the hole to lose the tournament.

In 1908 she lost in the quarter-finals of the U.S. Championship to eventual winner Katherine Harley. In the 1911 U.S. Championship semi-finals she beat Dorothy Campbell, that year's Canadian Women's Amateur and British Ladies Amateur champion, then defeated Lillian B. Hyde in the championship match. Curtis made it back-to-back U.S. titles in 1912 when she also was the medalist for the sixth time.

Besides her skill at golf, Curtis was an excellent tennis player. In 1908 she won the U.S. Open doubles tennis championship with Evelyn Sears, becoming the only woman to simultaneously hold the U.S. golf and tennis titles.

In 1904, Curtis was a student at Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston, training that would lead to her being a Board member of the Family Service Society for 51 years. With her career over in competitive golf, during World War I, she went to Paris, France where she joined the Red Cross, serving as the head of its Bureau for Refugees for three years. Her time in Paris marked the beginning of several more years spent in various places across Europe with the Red Cross.

In 1932, Curtis and her sister donated the Curtis Cup for a biennial golf competition between amateur teams representing the United States and Great Britain. She remained active in golf matters for most of her life. In December 1955, the Women's Golf Association of Massachusetts established a tournament in her and her sister's honor. The trophy, known as "The Curtis Bowl," is a replica of the Curtis Cup.

Curtis was the recipient of the 1958 Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. She died in 1965 at the age of 82.

Image





Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Curtis
 
#2,722 · (Edited by Moderator)
#2,723 · (Edited by Moderator)
GARDINER, "BETTY" (Elizabeth Neil Gardiner)
Great Britain (Northern Ireland)
Born 11 March 1903 Magherafelt, County Derry
Died ????
Married James Lee, 1932 in in Ardtrea Church, Cookstown, County Tyrone
[Active 1928-1939]

As well as being a golf champion, Betty (Gardiner) Lee was Northern Ireland's top female tennis player between the two world wars, when she won many singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles titles. Her singles titles include a record eight at the Ulster Hard Court Championships (1928-31, 1933-35 and 1937-38) and four at the more prestigious Ulster (Grass Court) Championships, in 1930, 1932-33 and 1939.

Winner: 1930, '32, '33, '39 Ulster Championships
RU: 1928, '29, '34, '38 Ulster Championships


Source: http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=661298.0


[Thanks to Newmark for this information]
 
#2,724 · (Edited by Moderator)
WILLIAMS, AMY (Amy Reeve Williams)
United States
Born 29 March 1872 in Pennsylvania
Died 1969
Married: (1) Mantle Fielding (died in 1941) in 3 November 1898 in Philadelphia-children Richard M (born 1904) and Frances (born 1907)
Married: (2) John Duncan Spaeth in 1942
[Active from at least 1891 to 1896]

Doubles finalist at the US Nationals in 1894 and 1895.

She lived in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

Note that a family tree in Ancestry gives her date of marriage as 1893, but this is clearly in error, as the date was 1898.

Image
Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Williams_(tennis)
http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0207.htm

[Thanks to Rollo for this information]
 
#2,725 · (Edited by Moderator)
CLOSTERMAN, "NONA" (Winona E. Closterman)
Born September 15, 1877 in Cincinnati, Ohio
Died July 23, 1944, probably in Montclair, New Jersey
Married Robert Brookes Neff on April 26, 1905, in Hamilton County, Ohio
[Active 1895-1906]

Winona Closterman, popularly known as “Nona”, was the daughter of Joseph Closterman and Marie Closterman (née Kemper).

She reached the finals in the doubles at the U.S. National Championships in 1902 with Maud Banks.

At the Tri-State tennis tournament in Cincinnati, she made 14 finals appearances, winning singles titles in 1901 and 1903, a doubles title in 1903, and mixed doubles titles in 1899, 1902 and 1904. She also reached two singles finals (1902 and 1904), five other doubles finals (1899–1902 and 1904), and one other mixed doubles final (1903) at Cincinnati. In 1901, she beat two future "International Tennis Hall of Famers" players in the singles matches to win the title. The first was 1899 U.S. singles champ Marion Jones of Nevada in the semifinals (whom she beat 7–5, 6–0) and Juliette Atkinson in the final, whom she beat in straight sets in the best-of-five format, 6–2, 8–6, 6–1.

Also in 1901 she won the Southern Women’s Tennis Championship and was a finalist to Myrtle McAteer at the Western Tennis Championships in Chicago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winona_Closterman

[Thanks to Newmark for help with this biography]
 
#2,726 · (Edited by Moderator)
ALPENFELS, ETHEL (Ethel Josephine Alpenfels)
Born 1907
Died 1981

Was an American anthropologist who served as professor of anthropology at New York University.

Born to a German baron, Alpenfels graduated from the University of Washington and received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.[1] In her studies as part of the Bureau for Intercultural Education in 1944, she went to high schools in Chicago and educated them on differences and cultures, explaining that people considered "simple" have complex cultures.

Ethel also played tennis. Her name appears in some State results from the 1920s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Alpenfels
http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=2266,4150643
 
#2,728 · (Edited by Moderator)
CICCONE, ELENA (Elena L. Ciccone)
Born c. 1918/19 in Newton, Massachusetts
Died March 17, 2003 in Natick, Massachusetts
Married Russell

Runner-up in the U.S. girls' national indoor championships in singles and doubles (1934).

[From her obit]

Elena L. (Ciccone) Russell of Millis, a former amateur tennis player,died Thursday, March 17, 2003, in MetroWest Medical Center in Natick,Massachusetts, at the age of 84.

Mrs. Russell was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and graduated from Newton High School, where she was named best all-around athlete. An accomplished tennis player, she was mentored by tennis great Hazel Wightman and in 1932 was the nation's No. 2-ranked amateur. She continued playing well into her 70s and taught for many years at the Millis Recreation Department. "We were always at the tennis courts," said her daughter, Gilda Chanonhouse of Reading, Massachusetts.

Mrs. Russell was also an active volunteer and received a certificate of achievement from the state for more than two decades of service for the senior citizen lunch program in Millis.
Mrs. Russell also worked for more than 20 years as the housekeeper forthe Archdiocese of Boston at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Millis,where she also sang in the choir.

"My mother was quite a wonderful person," Chanonhouse said. "She wasthe family comedian. She kept everyone's spirits up during some of the most terrible things that could happen to a family. My husband said to me the other day, 'I never met anybody that didn't like your mother.'"

Mrs. Russell remained a sports fan all her life, her daughter said."She wouldn't miss anything. Wherever there was a ball involved, my mother was there," Chanonhouse said.

Source:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...es/6er-8ujwAQg
 
#2,731 · (Edited by Moderator)
THOMPSON, BERTHA (or "Bert") (nee Bertha F. Jost)
United States
Born February 20,1905 in Missouri
Died March 20, 1972, in Los Angeles
Married Albert "Al" Lynch Thompson (11.1.1897-1995) in 1923.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...GRid=121829421
[Active in the 1920s and 1930s]

She is the mother of Gloria Thompson and the grandmother of Jimmy Connors. She was a strong influence on Connors, who called her "Two-Mom." Bertha was a prominent player in her native East St Louis during the 1930s.

Her nickname may well have been a play on her husbands name of Albert. He went by "Al", and "Bert" fit her first name and part of his as well.

[Thanks to Jimbo, Rollo and Rosamund for this information]
 
#2,734 · (Edited by Moderator)
TORBY, Countess ANASTASIA de (Anastasia Mikailovna de Torby)
Russia/United Kingdom
Born 9 September 1892 in Wiesbaden (Ger)
Died 7 December 1977 in London
Married Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Baronet (16.1.1893-30.6.1973), 20 July 1917

Known as Lady Zia Wernher after her marriage.

Her great-grandfather was Czar Nicholas I of Russia.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasia_de_Torby

 
#2,735 · (Edited by Moderator)
DROGHEDA, Lady KATHLEEN (nee Kathleen Pelham Burn)
United Kingdom
Born 1887
Died 18 March 1966
Married (1) Henry Charles Ponsonby Moore, 10th Earl of Drogheda (21.4.1884-22.11.1957), 3 March 1909 in Edingurgh, Scotland, divorced 29 May 1921
Married (2) Guillermo de Landa y Edcandon*, 31 August 1922, divorced 16 April 1929
Nickname: “The Flying Countess” (she was one of the first women to fly)

Best known as "Lady Drogheda" or the "Countess of Drogheda" during her prime playing days. She competed at Wimbledon in 1914, winning 1 match before going out in the 2R. She was a member of the All-England Club, and pursued golf and flying among a myriad of hobbies.

Though the title was Irish the couple resided in England, never spending more than 2 weeks a year in Ireland.

Lady Drogheda was "an enigmatic cigarette-smoking 20th century lady famous for dabbling in the occult. The séances she hosted at her London townhouse were attended by such social celebrities as Mrs Keppel, Baroness d'Erlanger, Lady Ponsonby, Jacob Epstein, Sir Ernest Cassel, Augustus John and Wyndham Lewis. Rumours as to the latter’s relationship with Lady Drogheda whispered on the London breeze; the two certainly shared a passion for technology, aviation, speed and sensation."

She sued for divorce on the grounds of his adultery and failure to comply with a decree for restitution of conjugal rights. The respondent had appeared in the suit, but he had had no answer. The petitioner and the respondent were married on March 3, 1909, at St. Giles"s Church, Edinburgh.

[Part of the suit for divorce]--note this action in November of 1921 was finalized in May of 1922.

"Lady Drogheda, examined by Mr. BAYFORD, said that the house in Wilton-crescent was taken before her marriage, and it had been their home ever since the marriage. Her husband and she lived happily. In 1920 they and the children were staying at North Berwick with her mother. The respondent left North Berwick a few days before she did, and when she came to London she found that he had left Wilton-crescent and had left no Address. She had an interview with him about a week afterwards, and she did everything in her power to persuade him, but she could not get him to come back. She then took proceedings for restitution of conjugal rights, and a decree was pronounced on May 25 last. (See The Times of May' 26.)"

Upon here divorce Kathleen was granted custody of the 2 children-Charles and Patricia. Her son Charles Moore "Garrett" (23 April 1910 – 24 December 1989), was the 11th Earl of Drogheda.

The New York Times rendered husband #2's name as Guillermo Dellanda, describing him as a rich South American polo player.

Image


In 1946 famous painter Oskar Kokoschka did a portrait of her.

Image


Sources:

Hoare, Philip, Oscar Wilde's Last Stand, (Arcade, 1998)
The Times law report from November 23, 1921 (p. 4).

http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history...edrogheda.html (Includes detailed report of the divorce proceedings from the London Times in footnote 15A)

Driving herself without a chauffeur in 1917.

http://www.agefotostock.com/en/Stock...d/MEV-10699380
 
#2,736 · (Edited by Moderator)
BALTACHA, ELENA (Elena Sergeevna Baltgacha)
United Kingdom
Born 14 August 1983 in Kiev, Ukraine
Died 04 May 2014 in Ipswich, Great Britian.
Married Nino Severino, 8 December 2013
Career Span: 1997-2013 (announced retirement on 18 November)
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing style: RH with two-handed backhand.

Sports in in her blood. Elena's mother Olga represented the Soviet Union in athletics, and her father Sergei was professional football player who moved the family with him to the United Kingdom to play for Ipswich in 1989.

Elena was British #1 for much of the period from 2002-2012. More often than not Baltacha fell early in slams, never getting past the 3R. 2010 was her best year-beating Na Li and reigning French Open champion Francesca Schiavone.

Knee surgery in 2013 led her to retire. Weeks later she married her coach Nino Severino. The couple has had the Elena Baltacha Tennis Academy in Ipswich since 2010. In early 2014 Elena was diagnosed with liver cancer, an illness that killed her a few weeks later.

Career statistics

Singles record :324-243 (.571%)
Highest singles ranking: #49 --13 September 2010.
Winner of 11 ITF singles events and 5 ITF doubles in her career. Her best win was on grass at Nottingham in 2010.

Wiki page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Baltacha

 
#2,738 · (Edited by Moderator)
ARGUIMBAU, MARIETTE (Mariette Starr Arguimbau)
United States
Born December 4, 1917, in Glenbrook, Connecticut
Died May 26, 2008, in Greenwich, Connecticut
Married Daniel Badger in September 1942 in New York
Career Span: 1930s to at least 1940.

Had 2 sons and 2 daughters.

Very active in New England, where she was ranked #12 in 1940.

Here is a link to Mariette’s obituary in the “New York Times”: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...55C0A96E9C8B63

[Thanks to Newmark for this biography]
 
#2,739 · (Edited by Moderator)
SHEDDEN, RUTH (nee Ruth Hartwell Blodgett)
United States
Born August 28, 1894, in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Died September 10, 1972, in Seminole County, Florida.
Married William Martindale Shedden by 24 August 1918 in West Newton, Massacuesetts.
[Career Span: 1916-1937]

Ruth Blodgett was the daughter of Edward Everett Blodgett and Mabel Louise Blodgett (née Fuller). Ruth attended Smith College, and was college tennis champion of Smith.

Ruth sometimes played doubles with her sister Dorothy Blodgett. She was invariably listed as Mrs W.M. Shedden during her playing days. Mrs Shedden was at her peak in the early 1920s, competing at Forest Hills in 1922 and 1923. In 1923 she made the 3R-going out to Kitty Mckane (later Godfree) 6-1 6-1.

She played on past the births on her children Ann (b. 1925) and William (b. 1927).

Sources:

Ruth Hartwell Blodgett Shedden (1894 - 1972) - Find A Grave Memorial

William Martindale Shedden (1892 - 1970) - Find A Grave Memorial

[Thanks to Newmark for help with this biography]
 
#2,740 · (Edited by Moderator)
CAPE, "VANDY" (Mary Story Cape)
United States
Born July 6, 1895, in New York
Died March 25, 1974 in Pinehurst, North Carolina
Married (1) Walter Merrill Hall on April 11, 1925 in Manhattan-divorced 12 August 1940
Married (2) Richard Tufts in 1964
[Active in 1925 and as late as 1932]

Best known as a writer before her first marriage. Vandy obtained a Reno divorce in 1940 on the grounds of cruelty. Mr Hall was at one time the USTA President.

In 1925 and 1932 she was in the US Nationals doubles draw.

Source:

"Divorces Walter M Hall. Vandy Cape, Writer, Is Freed From Tennis Official in Reno". New York Times, 13 August 1940, page 23.
 
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