Marion Miley

Miley was born in Philadelphia in 1914, the only child of Fred Miley and Elsie Ego Miley. She moved with her family to Fort Pierce, Florida, in 1921, following her father's employment as a golf pro. It was in Fort Pierce that Miley first played golf, taking up the game when she was twelve years old. She attended and graduated from St. Lucie County High School before the family moved to Lexington, Kentucky in 1930, when Fred became the golf pro at the Lexington Country Club. Elsie eventually became the club's office manager and Marion continued developing her considerable golf skills under her father's instruction. Golf was only one of Marion's passions. She was very interested in music – playing the piano since she was a child – and in medicine. In numerous interviews, she expressed her long-term desire of becoming a doctor. She entered Florida State College For Women in the fall of 1930, but dropped out in 1932 after her sophomore year to focus solely on golf. With the Lexington Country Club as her home club, Marion started competing in women's amateur tournaments around the United States. Later, Standard Oil hired her in a public relations capacity to inspect gas stations and visit with local officials and business leaders. She also published articles in newspapers across the country showcasing her personal viewpoint on major tournaments in which she either previewed or participated. ==Golfing career==

Early championships Miley saw her first major golfing success in 1931, when she won the Kentucky Women's Amateur, a title she successfully defended the following year and six times in total throughout her life. with an audience to her triumph including Bing Crosby, Joan Bennett, and W.C. Fields. She became friends with Crosby at the time and he said he would challenge her to a friendly match in the future. and eventually lost in the semifinals against Bridget Newell, but received immense British media attention for the effort. In the 1938 U.S. Women's Amateur, Miley once again reached the semifinals, but lost to Patty Berg. A new national ranking was released in 1938 and Miley was ranked second in the United States. In total, Miley played in 41 major golf tournaments from 1931 to 1940, winning 22. A reporter described her as the "most photographed golfer in the world". An interview with The Courier-Journal in 1940, had her declare her goal of becoming the "best woman golfer in the world" and that she would then move on to "challenge the men". The beginning of 1941 saw her end up in a tie for the finals against Jean Bauer for a newly established invitational set in the Bahamas, where she met Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. Afterwards, however, she had a flareup of tendonitis in her left thumb, which she stated was hampering her playing capabilities throughout the year. She would reach the semifinals of the Miami International Four-Ball, while also focusing on altering her swing in order to improve the well-being of her thumb, which was seemingly better by September. Miley competed in the U.S. Women's Amateur again in the beginning of September, but lost in the third round against heiress Sylvia Annenberg Leichner. ==Murder==

On September 28, 1941, Miley was living in a second-floor apartment with her mother at the Lexington Country Club. A few years earlier, Fred Miley had taken a better-paying job as a golf pro at a Cincinnati club and would visit his family regularly. In a badly botched robbery, Marion was murdered at the club. Her body was discovered around five in the morning, after Miley's mother, who herself had been shot three times, crawled to a neighbor's house in order to get help. The killers had been attempting to rob the club after a dance had been held there the night before that was attended by famous socialites. The thieves had been unaware that the high cost of attendance was accepted on credit for many of the actual attendees and not with physical cash, resulting in them managing to steal only around $140. Miley's funeral took place on October 1, 1941, and was attended by over 1,000 people including golfers Patty Berg and Helen Dettweiler. Soon after, Bing Crosby gave $5,000 to a reward collection for the person or people that would manage to find and capture the murderers. Her death was widely covered in contemporary news publications around the world, and the three men involved in her killing were found quickly, placed on trial on December 8, 1941, and executed on February 26, 1943. ==Legacy==

The Lexington Country Club created the Marion Miley Memorial Golf Tournament in her memory. Another tournament called the Marion Miley Invitational was established in Kentucky. One of the awards established for the Women's Western Amateur after 1941 was named the Marion Miley Trophy. A documentary of Miley's life titled Forgotten Fame: The Marion Miley Story was released in September 2016. ==Championships==