Babe Didrikson
Babe led a long, storied career as both an amateur and professional athlete and competed in everything from billiards to tennis to basketball to swimming. Her competitive spirit wasn’t limited to only athletics. She gave exhibitions in needlepoint and often boasted that she could type eighty-six words a minute. In 1934, she even pitched several innings in three different Major League Baseball professional exhibition games, but golf became her passion. After only three years of playing it, Babe competed against a field of all men in the 1938 Los Angeles Open, a PGA event. She went on to dominate the world of golf, setting many records that still stand, both as an amateur and a professional, and became a founding member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).
Babe married one of her early golfing partners, George Zaharias, but after a dozen years, she began a relationship with Betty Dodd, another professional golfer. Dodd moved in with Babe and George and lived with them for the last six years of Babe’s life.
In 1956, competing and winning significant golf tournaments and working to raise cancer awareness right up to the end of her life, Babe succumbed to colon cancer at the age of forty-two.
In her New York Times obituary, it was noted that though she had once greeted opponents with taunts about beating them, as she aged, she began encouraging and supporting other young women on the golfing circuit.
Acknowledgments
THIS BOOK WOULD NEVER HAVE REACHED THE FINISH line without a fantastic group of teammates, coaches, and fans. Librarians and archivists played a critical role in helping me locate information about the women in this story. Thank you to Marge Loitz of the Village of Thornton Historical Society, Lily Mysona of the Malden Public Library, Kevin Leonard at Northwestern University Library, Kristi Sievert at William Woods University, and Tatyana Shinn, Laura Jolley, Heather Richmond, and Elizabeth Engel at the Columbia Research Center of the State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia.
I’m sure it’s strange to see a familiar beloved figure fictionalized, and I appreciate the goodwill the families and friends of these women have extended toward me. A heartfelt thank-you to Sharon Kinney Hanson, Brook Doire, and Amy Hicks for their passion and firsthand knowledge about these pioneering women track stars. I’m also grateful to Glenn Stout for championing Louise Stokes and generously sharing his research with me.
This story’s success relied upon the trusty counsel of early readers. Kerri Maher, S. J. Sindu, Jenni L. Walsh, Nyamekye Waliyaya, and Kelleen Cummings—thank you very much for your time, insight, and encouragement. I’m also thankful for Keely Platte, Madison Ostrander, and Crystal Patriarche at Booksparks.
My agent, Barbara Braun, read many early drafts of this novel, and her thoughtful feedback and support have been invaluable. My brilliant editor, Lucia Macro, saw the potential in Betty, Helen, and Louise from the first moment I mentioned them, and her wise advice and guidance has made all the difference. I’m forever indebted to the amazing team at William Morrow—Liate Stehlik, Molly Waxman, Asanté Simons, Jessica Lyons, Jennifer Hart, Rachel Meyers, Owen Corrigan, Lainey Mays, and Virginia Stanley.
My friends and family have been the best cheering squad, and I feel fortunate every day for their love. Dave, Kate, and Cookie, you are my gold medals—thank you.
P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*
About the Author
Meet Elise Hooper
About the Book
A Conversation with Elise Hooper
A Note on Sources
About the AuthorMeet Elise Hooper
A native New Englander, Elise spent several years writing for television and online news outlets before getting an M.A. and teaching high school literature and history. She now lives in Seattle with her husband and two daughters. Previous novels include The Other Alcott and Learning to See.
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About the BookA Conversation with Elise Hooper
Q: How did you discover this story about Betty, Helen, and Louise?
A: When my younger daughter, an avid swimmer, was in fourth grade, she chose Gertrude Ederle for a biography report. Do you know who Ederle is? I didn’t. She was a teenager from Manhattan who won several Olympic medals in 1924 and became the first woman to swim the English Channel. Ederle’s story intrigued me and led me to wonder about the stories of pioneering women athletes.
I should back up here and explain something else. When I was seven years old, I went to the Ice Capades at the Boston Garden and became captivated by Peggy Fleming. My family and I hadn’t even made it to the parking lot before I was begging to take ice-skating lessons and setting my sights on becoming an Olympic figure skater. It took me several years and many hours of practice in a nearby rink to figure out a heartbreaking truth: I was too tall to be an ice skater. (There were other reasons I wasn’t destined to become an Olympian, but let’s just go with the height issue.) Though I hung up my ice skates, I never quite let go of my Olympic ambitions. I started running, skiing, and playing field hockey and tennis. Each time I picked up a new sport, I fantasized about going to the Olympics, but the hope became a little more distant. During my midtwenties, I set myself to fulfilling another longtime dream, qualifying for the Boston Marathon, and I ran it in 2001. Over a decade later, I played on tennis teams that made it to the finals of the USTA League National Championships—twice. Still, none of these accomplishments was anything close to the Olympics.
It was at this point, sitting on my living room couch and reading about women Olympians, that my forty-year-old self decided that my best shot at going to the Olympics would be through writing a novel about athletes. Through my research, I came across the story of Betty Robinson
