Betz, Pauline (Mrs. Addie)
Tennis
b. Aug. 6, 1919, Dayton, OH
An acrobatic tomboy as a child, Betz enjoyed walking on her hands to the corner to meet her father when he came home from work. Her mother, a high school physical education teacher, introduced her to tennis, thinking it was more ladylike.
Betz didn't take formal lessons until she was fifteen, but she won a tennis scholarship to Rollins College in 1939. While a student at Rollins, she became the U. S. women's champion in 1942, defended the title successfully in 1943 and 1944, and won for a fourth time in 1946, when she also swept to the Wimbledon championship without losing a set.
A fierce competitor, Betz was known for being able to retrieve seemingly impossible shots, and she had an excellent backhand. In 1947, the U. S. Lawn Tennis Association discovered that she and her husband were looking into the possibility of establishing a women's professional tour and she was suspended from amateur competition.
She and Sarah Palfrey Cooke toured the country as professionals in 1947, playing exhibitions every day and earning abut $10,000. Betz later toured with Jack Kramer, Pancho Segura and "Gussy" Moran. After retiring from competition, she conducted tennis clinics for underprivileged children and wrote about the sport for newspapers and magazines.