[LKK]

GALLAY, ABEILLE (nee Abeille Jacqueline Villard)
France
Born 09 September 1879 in Paris
Died 08 February 1951 in Paris
Married Robert Gaston Maurice Gallay (1878-1954) on 19 October 1901 Children: Violette (1902) Jacqueline (1903) Claude (1906-1995) and Michel (1912-1996)
Nickname: "The Queen Bee"
[Active 1909-1910]

This is the Mme Galley of the 1900-1910 era. Abeille was a rather stout women with a big hat, nicknamed “The Queen Bee” (“abeille” means “bee” in French). She was apparently playing in between having her children. Her sister Thérèse won the women's singles event at the 1906 French Nationals as the Comtesse de Kermel. Abeille was runner-up in the women’s singles event at the French National Championships in 1909.

In 1910 she gave Margueirite Broquedis quite a tussle at the French Nationals.

Her daughters Jacquleine and Violette were both later tennis players of note.

In 1913, Robert Gallay was a founding member of the International Tennis Federation and its secretary general from that year until 1949. He was also, variously, vice-president of the French Tennis Federation, vice-president of the Union des sociétés françaises de sports athlétiques (a French sports federation) and vice-president of both the Stade Français stadium and the Tennis Club de Paris. Robert Gallay was also a chair umpire and notably umpired the Davis Cup Challenge Round of 1928 at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris between the defending champions, France, and the USA.

Etienne Micard, Marguerite Broquedis and "The Queen Bee" (on the right) at the 1910 French Championships.

Sources:

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abeille_Villard-Gallay
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gallay
https://gw.geneanet.org/sylviegavand?lang=en&iz=1325&p=abeille+jacqueline&n=villard


[Thanks to Newmark and Rollo for this information]

 

[LKK]

GALLAY, JACQUELINE
France
Born 19 March 1903 in Sainte Menehould, Marne
Died ????
Married Pierre Liotard-Vogt in 1944 (1909-1987)
[Active 1928 to 1935]

Played the French in 1932 and 1935. She entered Wimbledon 6 times from 1928 to 1934. She was the daughter of Abeille Gallay.

Wimbledon record (entered 1928 to 1931 and 1933-1934)

Singles: 1-4
Doubles: 1-5
Mixed: 2-6

Spouse a President of Nestle SA-the chocolate company. Son Jacques (1949-80). She was either dead or divorced by 1956, when Pierre remarried Margaret Mary Mehran.

Sources:

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scor...122454-16d6-42b4-a275-264efb4603c5/index.html
http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/f/F42900.php


[Thanks to Newmark and Rollo for this information]

 

[LKK]

INOUE, ETSUKO (井上悦子 in Japanese)
Japan
Born 18 October 1964 in Tokyo
Married Kejiro Kaneshiro in 1993
Height: 1.64m
[Active: 1982-1990]

1987 Aussie doubles semifinalist.

Japanese #1 through much of the early 1980s. She represented Japan in Fed Cup every year from 1982 to 1989.

Her highest ranking (at #26) was achieved on 14 March 1988. At the tme this was the highest ever ranking for a Japanese female.

One of Japan's "3 daughters" with Emiko Okakawa and Kumiko Okamoto, it was Inoue who went out on the international tour first and had the most success. She dropped out of high school two years early to pursue pro tennis. While not unusual in the West, in a culture like Japan that emphasized education her decision was both risky and notable at the same time.

By 1983 her ranking was high enough to get her into the main draw of most WTA events, including slams. Her grand slam highlight came in 1987, when Inoue made the Australain Open doubles semis with Patricia Hy.

After retirement Etsuko got married and completed college. Her 8 consecutive years in the top 100 are a testament to her consistency. Inoue took the torch of Japanese women' tennis and handed it over to Kimiko Date, who of course took ladies tennis in Japan to new heights.

WTA YEAR-End Ranking

1983: #81
1984: #68
1985: #98
1986: #81
1987: #29
1988: #51
1989: #68
1990: #71

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etsuko_Inoue

 

[LKK]

GALLAY, VIOLETTE (Violette Abeille Gallay)
France
Born 14 September 1902 in Paris
Died 20 November 1990 in Saint-Georges-sur-Loire,
[Active in 1932]

Played the 1932 French. Sister to Jacqueline

Source:

https://gw.geneanet.org/sylviegavand?lang=en&iz=1325&p=violette+abeille+jacqueline&n=gallay

[Thanks to Rollo for this information]

 

[LKK]

GALTIER, MAUD (nee Maud Mottez)
France
Born 21 April 1913
Died 07 April 2014
Married Adrien Galtier circa early 1940s-1943 at the latest.
[Active 1947-1968]

Son Alain and daughters Brigitte (Lanternier). Solange (de Kerjégu), and Francine (b 1944). As Francine may not have been her eldest child she may probably married well before 1944. Solange was active in tennis in 1958, supporting an earlier marriage date.

A baseliner, she served underhanded. In later years mother and daughter Solange competed at Roland Garros in the same year. Long-lived, passing away when she was on the eve of turning 101.

Maud competed in singles at Roland Garros for 17 consecutive years from 1949 to 1966. In 1968 she limited herself to doubles events only.

Her French highlight came 1954 when she reached the doubles final with Suzanne Schmitt, falling to Maureen Connolly and Nell Hopman 7-5 4-6 6-0

Titles: Won at least 7 events--the first at Verviers in 1952 and the last at Paris in 1958.

She died on the eve of her 101st birthday and is buried in Saint-Jean-de-Luz cemetary in Paris. Note that the tennis Club de Paris runs an obit condolence dated 03 April 2014. Could this (and not April 07) be her date of death?

On the cover of Tennis de France-November of 1954

Sources:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Galtier

http://www.dansnoscoeurs.fr/maud-galtier/1006561

[Thanks to Rosamund for noting her passing]

 

[LKK]

GALTIER, SOLANGE
France
Born 19 April 1940
Married Régis Louis Jules Monjarret de Kerjégu
[Active as early as 1958 to 1960s]

Maud Galtier was her mother. Both mother and daughter played the 1960 French Championships.

Sources:

http://gw.geneanet.org/wikifrat?lang...ange;n=galtier

[Thanks to Jimbo for this information]

 

[LKK]

GARFIT, “MAUDE” (Helen Maude Garfit)
United Kingdom
Born 15 February 1874 at Ruloe, Cheshire, England
Died 23 August 1948
Married Thomas Douglas, 27 October 1910 in Christ Church, Crowton, Cheshire.
Nicknames: Known as “Maudie” within family.
Variant speelling: listed as "Maud" by Wimbledon site.
[Active: 1898-1910]

Began playing at around the age of 14, first playing at a house party.

Titles and finals

Won: 1903-North Wales. 1904-North Wales. 1907-Irish and Derbyshire. 1908-Welsh, Irish, Scottish. 1909-Welsh, Irish, Scottish, Derbyshire. Also won Leicestershire in ????.

Finalist: 1898-Edgbaston. 1901-Edgbaston. 1930-Irish. 1904-Welsh. 1906-Welsh. 1909-Northern

A description of her style of play:

"a steady, all-round player with a strong backhand return down the line or short cross court"
(Arthur Wallis Myers, Lawn tennis at home and abroad, page 186)

How she started tennis at age 16.

As well as practising on the family’s lawn tennis court at Ruloe, Maude also joined the Rock Ferry Lawn Tennis Club in Merseyside, Liverpool, to which she would journey by bicycle three times a week. Her green Raleigh bicycle had strings on the back wheel to prevent her long Victorian skirts from becoming entangled in the spokes

.

At her peak in 1908 and 1909

"In 1908, Maude enjoyed her most successful lawn tennis season to date, in the process achieving a unique feat. In early July she retained her singles title at the Welsh Championships in Newport, beating a Mrs G. Bruce in the final, 6-2, 6-3 (the runner-up’s name is doubly difficult to find because she was married and lost her maiden name as a result).

A few days later, Maude travelled across to Dublin to take part in the Irish Championships, where she was defending the singles title. She retained this title by beating her compatriot Edith Boucher in the final, 6-4, 6-2.

Shortly afterwards, Maude travelled up to Scotland to take part in the Scottish Championships in Bridge of Allan. Continuing her run of success, Maude also won this national title, defeating a Scottish player, A.M. Ferguson, in the final, 6-3, 6-4. The latter player’s first names are not known.

Maude’s win in the Scottish Championships meant that within less than a month she had remained champion of Ireland, while also becoming champion of Wales and Scotland for the first time. She thus became the first player to win these three prestigious titles in the same season.

Maude also won the All-England Doubles in 1908 with Charlotte Sterry.

The height of her career was perhaps 1909, when Maude retained her singles title at the Welsh, Irish and Scottish Championships. In addition she reached the semis at Wimbledon, losing to Boothby 6-2 6-1. Oddly enough this was only the second time she entered the Championships, first competing in 1899.

According to “Lawn Tennis and Badminton” of 8 July, 1909, “... Miss Garfit, on the contrary, never found her real game; she was mistiming the ball badly and never seemed able to calculate the pace as modified by Miss Boothby’s cut; with the result that she seldom got the ball in the middle of her racket and consequently was hitting all her drives just too low. Her sideline shots were often very good, but they were almost her only scoring shot; whereas Miss Boothby was playing all her strokes very well...” (Dora Boothby went on to win the singles title at Wimbledon in 1909.)

Garfit capped things off by taking the Derbyshire Chmps. Garfit’s career ended with her marriage in October of 1910. She had never played outside the British Isles and only entered Wimbledon twice.

In the summer of 1909, when asked by the publication “Lawn Tennis and Badminton” to give an account of her most memorable lawn tennis match, Maude submitted the following piece: “I think that the match which stands out most vividly in my memory is the final for the Trefriw (North Wales) Cup in 1903. I played Miss N. Forster and she led set up, 5-1 and 40-15. I was longing for a cup of tea, but ‘the kettle would not boil’. At the beginning of this game, however, this cheering cup arrived and I managed to win the match with the loss of only one more game – afterwards beating Miss Makinson in the Challenge Round. Subsequently the cup became my own property by default, as the tournament was abandoned in my third year.”

Maude and Thomas had five children: Garry (b. 1911), Sholto (b. 1914), Ada (b. 1916), Haig (b. 1917) and Charlie (b. 1919). The last of these five children was born when Maude was 44.Thomas Douglas died on 2 January 1948 at the age of 78.

Maude Garfit and Thomas Douglas’s descendants include Gerald Howarth, Conservative MP for Aldershot and, as of 2010, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence as Minister for International Security Strategy.

Maude’s aforementioned granddaughter, Maude Brownlie, is the daughter of Maude and Thomas’s eldest son, Garry. Maude Brownlie, a nurse by profession, served on the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting*in the 1980s. In recent years Maude has helped to set up the Helen Maude Garfit Fund at the University of Edinburgh to support research into Fragile X Syndrome, Autism and Fragile X Associated Tremor Ataxia Syndrome (FXTAS) at the Patrick Wild Centre situated within the University of Edinburgh. Maude, herself a carrier of Fragile X, was diagnosed with early FXTAS, and has two grandsons and one first cousin with full mutation Fragile X Syndrome caused by the defective gene.

According to the “Southern Reporter” newspaper of 5 August 2011, Fragile X Syndrome can be traced back to Maude’s grandmother and is the leading cause of inherited learning difficulties and a common cause of autism. Older male and female carriers of the condition can suffer from FXTAS, a degenerative disorder of movement. Maude Brownlie has herself suffered from the condition and was treated successfully for it in the United States. Maude hopes that by telling her family’s story interest will be aroused and British health care teams alerted, and that by working together we can bring new hope to affected families.

The Helen Maude Garfit Fund established earlier this year [2011] has already raised over £65,000. Further related information can be found at: www.patrickwildcentre.com

Note that while the official Wimbledon site has her name as "Maud", all the indications we have indicate it should be "Maude", with the "e" added on the end.

Sources:

Much of the information for this biography,including direct quotes, comes from Mark's thread on Maud Garfit:

Maude Garfit (1874-1948) – An early lawn tennis player - TennisForum.com

 

[LKK]

GARLAND, DAISY (Daisy B Garland)
Australia (NSW)
Born 1907 in Stroud, NSW
Married Arthur E Franks 1925

 

[LKK]

GARLING, DAISY ("Diz") (Daisy Aileen Garling)
Australia (NSW)
Born in 1901 in New South Wales
Died in 1988
Married Russell Waddington in 1926
[Active circa 1918-25]

In the 1928 Aussie doubles draw (Sydney).

Mrs Waddington had 3 children.

Link to a small photo of Daisy (Garling) Waddington: http://www.myheritage.com/search-rec...origin=profile

[Thanks to Gee Tee, Newmark, and Rollo for this information]

 

[LKK]

GARNSEY, “DORA” (Theodora Kinglake Garnsey)
Australia (NSW)
Born 1871
Died 1956 in Sydney
Married Dr Francis ("Frank") Hart Baker Gaden on 27 October 1898 in Christ Church, Sydney
[Active circa 1888-98]

[Thanks to Newmark for this information]

 

[LKK]

GARRISON, ZINA (Zina Lynna Garrison)
United States
Born 16 November 1963
Married Willard Jackson, 21 September 1989, divorced, 1997

World Top Ten in class, her slam highlight came in 1990 at Wimbledon, when she upset Monica Seles (QF) and Steffi Graf (SF) on the way to the final, where she fell to Martina Navtailova. Zina was tghe first African-American to reach a singles slam final since Althea Gibson in 1958.

Incredibly fast, she had had an all court game but was prone to bouts of nerves.

 

[LKK]

GASSMANN, NELLY
Germany
Born
Died
Married Richard Stephanus by 1924.

Ranked #6 in Germany for 1924 as Frau Stephanus. She was from Hanover.

 

[LKK]

GAVALDON, ANGELICA (Angélica Gavaldón Loaiza)
Mexico
Born 3 October 1973 in El Centro, California
Married Tyler Verdieck, 29 September 2007

Generally low ranked, she twice made surprise runs at the Australian Open, making the QF in 1990 and 1995. Ended 1995 ranked #36 in the world.

She played for Mexico in the Federation Cup from 1990 to 1997, and at the Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996.

Since retiring in 2000, Gavaldon has become a coach to other tennis players. Recently released her own clothing label Angalo Activewear in 2007.

 

[LKK]

GENGLER, MARJORY "MARGIE"
United States
Born 03 May 1951
Married Stan R. Smith, November 1974. Smith was world #1 in 1972.

Graduated from Princeton in 1973. Retired after marriage, having 4 children.

http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2010/03/17/pages/1536/index.xml


Gengler at Princeton

 

[LKK]

GERSON, MARLENE
South Africa
Born 21 June 1940
Married Brian Bethlehem 20March 1963
[Active 1957-1962]

Won Wimbledon Plate in the 1962.

[From a 2016 pdf file on Jewish South African Acheivers]

Some 10 days after meeting Marlene Bethlehem, I scoured my notes for her age.

I couldn’t find it. The point is not that I am a slipshod reporter, it’s that, once you have experienced Bethlehem in person, her age becomes
utterly irrelevant.

Bethlehem’s vivacity is truly remarkable - and over the last five decades a preponderant part of it has gone the way of the South African and international Jewish communities.

Bethlehem was also one of this country’s leading sportswomen and participated in three Maccabiahs (1957, 1961 and 1985), played (as Marlene Gerson) on the international tennis circuit from 1959 – ‘62, reached the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon ladies’ doubles with Australian Eve Duldig in 1961, and in 1962 won the All England Plate at Wimbledon. At the Dutch Open in 1962, she and Sandra Price won the ladies’ doubles final.
Whatever fuels her, Bethlehem’s life has been that of a sportsperson, wife and mother, a person who has involved herself in local politics, and above all a “serial communal worker”.

Bethlehem is married (53 years and not counting!) to Brian, an anaesthetist, with whom she has had three children, Louise, Lael, and Keith. Bethlehem also notes, smiling, that she has six grandchildren.

Following Wimbledon, Bethlehem didn’t dump the tennis. She was a professional coach from 1964 - ‘85 and in 1974, during apartheid, was the official coach to the first-ever black South African women’s tennis team. Last year, she and her daughter, Lael, won their fifth consecutive ladies’ doubles club championships at the Parkview Lawn Tennis Club.

And it goes on. Bethlehem is a past chairman and is a life vice-president of the Jewish Women’s Benevolent Society. She is a past chairman and is a life vice-president of Jewish Community Services.

She was the past national chairman (1995 - ‘99, the first woman since its inception in 1903) and president (1999 - 2003) of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, still sits on the national SAJBD board, and chairs the country communities’ portfolio.

She was a monitor at the country’s first democratic elections and accompanied the late Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris to deliver his famous address at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings.

Her commitment to the community has been acknowledged in awards from the Edenvale Jewish Community, the Hebrew Order of David, a medal for meritorious service from the Union of Jewish Women, and an award from WIZO.

We’re not done yet. In 2004, then President Thabo Mbeki appointed Bethlehem deputy chairman of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural and Linguistic Communities (CRL). She did this work from 2004 - ‘08 and was reappointed a CRL member in 2009.
From 2008 - ‘16 Bethlehem served as vice-president of the prestigious Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (MFJC) based in New York City and founded in 1965 by Nahum Goldmann with reparation funds from the then West German government.

The mandate of the Foundation is the reconstruction of international Jewish cultural life following the Shoah. As a
representative of the MFJC, Bethlehem visited Jerusalem,
Istanbul, Moscow, Warsaw, Montevideo and Mexico. Then, just this year, she was elected president of the MFJC - an enormous honour for South African Jewry.

Bethlehem, as a result of her work with the international Jewish restitution organisation, where she worked among others with Edgar Bronfman Snr, chaired the local committee overseeing the disbursement of the Swiss Banks’ Humanitarian Fund for Needy Holocaust Survivors in 1999. She has been vice-chairman of the SA Holocaust and Genocide Centre for six years.

But, going back to 2006 for a moment, Bethlehem was appointed by the SAJBD and the government to be an election observer at the Palestinian elections in East Jerusalem. And, in 2015 Bethlehem was appointed chairman of the Rabbi Cyril Harris Community Centre.

Her most poignant memory? Given her experiences, that’s a tough question for Bethlehem to answer. She seems torn between witnessing Bronfman Snr. negotiate with recalcitrant Swiss bankers and accompanying Rabbi Harris to his TRC presentation. But in the end, she settles for having dealt with Nelson Mandela while SAJBD chair. He presented her a plate, inscribed, “To Marlene Bethlehem, a fine lady, who has
deserved our admiration and respect.”

“I was privileged beyond belief to have an association with him."

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlene_Gerson

http://www.sajr.co.za/docs/default-...4/2016-jewish-achievers-download.pdf?sfvrsn=2 [page 12]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lfH-wfJRBQ [1962 Wimbledon clip, Marlene appears at 36 seconds]

Another well-deserved accolade for our Marlene

www.gendatabase.com [source for date of marriage]

[Thanks to LKK for this information]

 

[LKK]

GHIRARDI, LEA
France
Born 10 February 1974
Married L. Rubbi

WTA #85 in 1995.

Lea Ghirardi - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[LKK]

GIBSON, ALTHEA
United States
Born 25 August 1927 in Silver, South Carolina
Died 28 September 2003
Married (1) William A Darben, 17 October 1965, divorced 1976
Married (2) Sydney Llewellyn, 11 April 1983, divorced 1988
Height: 5' 11 "
[Active 1947-1960]

I always wanted to be somebody. If I made it, it’s half because I was game enough to take a lot of punishment along the way and half because there were a lot of people who cared enough to help me.

The first African-American to play at Forest Hills, she broke the color barrier that prevented African-Americans from playing in major events in the United States. Althea went on to win 5 majors in singles (1956 French, 1957 Wimbledon and US Championships and 1958 Wimbledon and US Chmps).

Gibson would become the first African-American on the cover of Time Magazine (Aug 26 1957) and Sports Illustrated (Sept 2 1957).

At the conclusion of the 1958 season, Gibson had won 58 combined singles and doubles titles. She had compiled an impressive 53-9 record at the majors (16-1 at Wimbledon; 27-7 at the U.S.; 6-0 at the French; 4-1 at the Australian) and had been a member of the 1957 and 1958 Wightman Cup teams, helping the team win a championship in 1957. (Hall of Fame)

Althea turned pro in 1959, briefly touring with the Harlem Globetrotters and Karol Fageros.

World Top Ten Rankings

1956: #2
1957: #1
1958: #1


With the US Nationals trophy

Sources:

https://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/inductees/althea-gibson/

 

[LKK]

GIBSON, JOAN
Australia (NSW)
Married John A Cottrill by 1967[Active in 1967]


Husband John Cottrill was also a tennis player

 

[LKK]

GILBERT, "GEM" (nee Daphne J Dore ????)
United Kingdom
Born Q1 (January to March) 1922 in Steyning Hants.
Died 26th July 1958 in Hove.
Married (1) William H. Gillis Q1 1942 in Hove.
Married (2) Morris R. Croft Q1 1945 in Hove.
Married (3) Ronald A. Gilbert Q2 1950 in Hove.
Married (4) George Joseph Patrick Kerswell Q2 1958 in Aldershot.
[Active 1951-1956]

Brighton photographer Tony Mould makes reference to tennis star Daphne 'Gem ' Gilbert. She was best known by her nickname.

3 of her marriages took place in Hove, suggesting that was her home. As a war bride it is possible she was widowed. As a tennis player Gem was most prominent as Mrs R. A. Gilbert.

Today is she is best known for her unusual death. As a child she had witnessed her mother die of shock in the dentists chair. Not surprisingly she feared and avoided dentists.

From the Norman Vincent Peale book The Power of Positive Thinking:

Gem Gilbert continued to draw the picture of herself dying in a dentist's chair. Her thoughts became a reality for her. Her fear became so real to her that she wouldn't go to a dentist. It didn't matter how bad her dental problem was and how much pain she suffered, she just wouldn't go. Finally, the pain became unbearable, and she had to give in to see a dentist. The dentist came to her home to extract the problem tooth. Her minister and her physician were standing by her side to comfort her and reassure her against her fears. The dentist put a bib around her neck and began to take out the instruments. She died at the sight of the instruments before they were even brought to her mouth.

The London Daily Mirror which published the story, stated that "Gene Gilbert died of thirty years of thought!" In fact, Gilbert was simply following the script that she wrote thirty years ago in the office of her mother's dentist. Once she wrote that script, she played it out right to the finish.

Wimbledon record (entered 1951 and 1954 to 1956)

Singles : 0-1 (1951 was her only entry in the main draw)
Doubles: 2-3
Mixed: 0-1



Sources:

Peale, Norman Vincent. The Power of Positive Thinking. 1959.
www.ancestry.co.uk

Wimbledon Final Programme 1956 maiden name of Lady Competitors Mrs R.A. Gilbert- Miss D.J.Dore

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scor...8125d2-cef0-4681-b2f0-727a17418688/index.html

[Thanks to Rollo and Rosamund for this information]

 

[LKK]

GILCHRIST, “BERIS” (nee Beryll Esme Kelso)
Australia (NSW)
Married William James Gilchrist in 1942
Active as late as 1946

Note name sometimes listed as “Beryl” Kelso
NSW junior of late 1930s (sometimes named as Beryl) - Gilchrist a ranked tennis player
Are these the parents of Wendy Gilchrist?