Forgotten history: "Babe" Didrickson Zaharias

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Mildred Ella Didrickson, nicknamed "Babe" for her early baseball ability, was born in Beaumont in 1911 (just a few days over 100 years ago). She was a gifted all-round athlete who won gold and silver medals in the 1932 Olympics and later excelled in golf and other sports.

In 1938 she married George Zaharias, a well-known professional wrestler (wrestling was a popular legitimate sport at that time).

She was by all accounts very competitive and not very feminine. Of course she was plagued by rumors of homosexuality, possibly not being a woman at all, and general snobbishness because of her small-town working-class origin.

She was diagnosed and treated for cancer in the 1950s and later won the U.S. Women's Open in 1954. She died in Galveston in 1956. President Dwight Eisenhower (who knew his way around a golf course) acknowledged her achievements and death in an early televised news conference.

Today there is a museum dedicated to her in Beaumont, and the cities where she grew up are celebrating her centennial.

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- Jim