Mildred Ella Didrikson was born on June 26, 1911, She moved with her family to 850 Doucette in
Beaumont, Texas, at age 4. She claimed to have acquired the nickname "Babe" (after
Babe Ruth) upon hitting five
home runs in a childhood
baseball game, but her Norwegian mother had called her "Bebe" from the time she was a toddler. She was a singer and a
harmonica player and recorded several songs on the
Mercury Records label. Her biggest seller was "I Felt a Little Teardrop" with "Detour" on the flip side. Already famous as Babe Didrikson, she married
George Zaharias (1908–1984), a professional
wrestler, in
St. Louis, Missouri, on December 23, 1938. Thereafter, she was largely known as
Babe Didrikson Zaharias or
Babe Zaharias. adjacent to her
museum.
Athletic achievements Didrikson gained world fame in
track and field and was a three-time
AAU All-American in basketball from 1930–1932.
AAU champion Didrikson's first job after high school was as a secretary for the Employers' Casualty Insurance Company of Dallas, though she was employed only in order to play
basketball as an amateur on the company's "industrial team", the
Golden Cyclones. As a side note, the competition was then governed by the
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Despite leading the team to an AAU Basketball Championship in 1931, In the 80-meter hurdles, she equaled the world record of 11.8 seconds in her opening heat. In the final, she broke her record with an 11.7 clocking, taking gold. In the javelin, she also won gold with an Olympic record throw of 43.69 meters. In the high jump, she took silver with a world record-tying leap of . Fellow American
Jean Shiley also jumped 1.657 metres, and the pair tied in a jump-off when the bar was raised to . Shiley was awarded the gold after Didrikson was ruled to have used an improper technique. Before the 1932 games, Didrikson was involved in a racial incident involving fellow athletes
Tidye Pickett and
Louise Stokes, both of whom are black. In Denver, on a train, Didrikson threw water on Pickett and Stokes, because Didrikson didn't like having African-American athletes on the team. Pickett and Stokes were later removed from the team, and replaced by white athletes who had qualified with slower times from the trials. Didrikson is the only track and field athlete, male or female, to win individual Olympic medals in separate running, throwing, and jumping events.
Post-Olympics In the following years, she performed on the
vaudeville circuit, traveled with teams like Babe Didrikson's All-Americans basketball team and the bearded
House of David team. Didrikson was also a competitive
pocket billiards (pool) player, though not a champion. She was noted in the January 1933 press for playing (and badly losing) a multi-day
straight pool match in New York City against famed female
Ruth McGinnis.
Golf By 1935, Didrikson began to play
golf, a latecomer to the sport in which she became best known. Shortly thereafter, she was denied amateur status and consequently, in January 1938, she competed in the
Los Angeles Open, a
PGA (Professional Golfers' Association) tournament. No other woman competed against men in this tournament until
Annika Sörenstam,
Suzy Whaley,
Michelle Wie, and
Brittany Lincicome almost six decades later. She shot 81 and 84, and missed the cut. In the tournament, she was teamed with George Zaharias. They were married eleven months later, and settled in
Tampa, Florida, on the premises of a golf course that they purchased in 1949. Didrikson became America's first female golf celebrity and the leading player of the 1940s and early 1950s. In order to regain amateur status in the sport, she could compete in no other sports for three years. She gained back her amateur status in 1942. In 1945, she participated in three more PGA Tour events, missing the cut of one of them, and making the cut of the other two; as of 2023, she remains the only woman to make the tournament cut in a regular PGA Tour event. Zaharias won the 1946
U.S. Women's Amateur and the 1947
British Ladies Amateur – the first American to do so – and three
Women's Western Opens. Having formally turned professional in 1947, Didrikson dominated the Women's Professional Golf Association and later the
Ladies Professional Golf Association. She was a founding member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, in 1950. Serious illness ended her career in the mid-1950s. Zaharias won a tournament named after her, the
Babe Zaharias Open of her hometown of
Beaumont, Texas. She won the 1947
Titleholders Championship and the 1948
U.S. Women's Open for her fourth and fifth
major championships. She won 17 straight women's amateur victories, a feat never equaled by anyone. By 1950, she had won every golf title available. Totaling both her amateur and professional victories, Zaharias won a total of 82 golf tournaments. Charles McGrath of
The New York Times wrote of Zaharias, "Except perhaps for
Arnold Palmer, no golfer has ever been more beloved by the gallery."
Golf awards While Zaharias missed the cut in the 1938
PGA Tour event, later, as she became more experienced, she made the cut in every PGA Tour event she entered. In January 1945, Zaharias played in three PGA tournaments and made the initial cut in all three, becoming the first and only female to do so. She shot 76–76 to qualify for the
Los Angeles Open. She then shot 76–81 to make the two-day cut in the tournament itself, but missed the three-day cut after carding a 79. She continued her cut streak at the
Phoenix Open, where she shot 77-72-75-80, finishing in 33rd place. and Tucson Opens through 36-hole qualifiers, as opposed to a sponsor's exemption. In 1948, she became the first woman to attempt to qualify for the
U.S. Open, but her application was rejected by the
USGA. They stated that the event was intended to be open to men only.
Baseball In March 1934, Didrikson
pitched a total of four
innings in three
Major League spring training exhibition games: • On March 20 she gave up one
walk and no
hits in one inning for the
Philadelphia Athletics against the
Brooklyn Dodgers, getting out of the inning with a
triple play. • On March 22 she pitched the first inning for the
St. Louis Cardinals against the
Boston Red Sox. It was reported that "Under tutelage of
Burleigh Grimes,
Dizzy Dean, and others she has learned to stand on the
rubber,
wind up like a big leaguer and throw a rather fair
curve." The Red Sox scored three runs against Didrikson in the inning before she got Boston third baseman
Bucky Walters to
fly out to future
Hall of Famer Joe Medwick in left field to end the inning. She was relieved at the start of the second inning by Cardinal pitcher
Bill Hallahan. 400 fans were in attendance. • On March 25 she played for the
Cleveland Indians against their Double-A farm team, the
New Orleans Pelicans, pitching two scoreless innings and hitting two line drives, one fair and one foul. and is still recognized as the world record holder for the farthest baseball throw by a woman.
Last years and death Zaharias had her greatest year in 1950 when she completed the
Grand Slam of the three women's majors of the day: the U.S. Open, the Titleholders Championship, and the Women's Western Open, a feat that made her the leader on the money list that year. Also that year, she reached 10 wins faster than any other LPGA golfer, doing so in one year and 20 days, a record that still stands (as do her records for reaching 20 and 30 wins, in two years and four months and five years and 22 days, respectively). She was the leading money-winner again in 1951, and in 1952 took another major with a Titleholders victory, but illness prevented her from playing a full schedule in 1952–53. She was a close friend of fellow golfer
Betty Dodd. According to
Susan Cayleff's biography
Babe, Dodd was quoted as saying, "I had such admiration for this fabulous person [Zaharias]. I loved her. I would have done anything for her." They met in a 1950 amateur golf tournament in Miami and became close almost immediately. Cayleff wrote, "As Didrikson's marriage grew increasingly troubled, she spent more time with Dodd. The women toured together on the golf circuit, and eventually Dodd moved in with Zaharias and Didrikson for the last six years of Didrikson's life." They never used the word "
lesbian" to describe their relationship, but there is little doubt that their relationship was both sexual and romantic, In 1953, Zaharias was diagnosed with
colon cancer. After undergoing surgery, she made a comeback in 1954. She took the
Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, her only win of that trophy, and her 10th and final major with a U.S. Women's Open championship, one month after the surgery and while wearing a
colostomy bag. With this win, she became the second-oldest woman to win a major LPGA championship tournament (behind
Fay Crocker). Babe Zaharias now stands third to Crocker and
Sherri Steinhauer. These wins made her the fastest player to reach 30 wins (five years and 22 days). In 1955, Zaharias published her autobiography ''This Life I've Led''. It is no longer in print but is available in many libraries. She is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in her hometown of Beaumont, Texas. During her final years, Zaharias became known not only for her athletic abilities but as a public advocate for cancer awareness, at a time when many Americans refused to seek diagnosis or treatment for suspected cancer. She used her fame to solicit donations for her cancer fund but also as a spokesperson for the
American Cancer Society. Her work in this area was honored by US President
Dwight Eisenhower on a visit to the White House. ==Legacy==