Born: June 26, 1911, Port Arthur, Texas, U.S.
Died: September 27, 1956, Galveston, Texas
Babe Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete, named the greatest woman athlete of the first half of the 20th century by an Associated Press poll in 1950. She was born Mildred Didrikson in Port Arthur, Texas. She excelled in many sports, including basketball, swimming, track and field, and especially golf. In her teens, she twice won a place on the All-American women’s basketball team and established three national records in track and field events. A contender in the 1932 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, she not only won but also set records for the javelin throw (143 ft 4 in) and the 80-m hurdle (11.7 sec). She then played professional basketball, appeared in vaudeville, and learnt to play golf. Between 1936 and 1954, she won every major women’s golf championship, including the U.S. amateur championship (1946), and the world championship (1948, 1949, 1950, 1951) and U.S. Women’s Open (1948, 1950, and 1954), both professional tournaments. Her autobiography, This Life I’ve Led, was published in 1955.
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