All the people we didn’t know.
For some reason, this one struck a chord with me. Today is the birthday of Mickey Wright. I’d never heard her name and didn’t recognize her face. But, as I learned, she was probably the greatest female golfer of all time.
Mickey Wright, her true name, Mary Kathryn Wright, was born in 1935, San Diego, California. She died just last year, three days after her birthday on February 17, 2020, in Florida. Heart attack.
Yes, many consider her golf’s greatest female competitor. She was a big player in the 1950s and ’60s when she set all those records.
There isn’t much written about her personal life. I’m guessing she was a lesbian for this very reason. When history leaves out all the details about an unmarried person’s life, you can almost always count on that as the reason. I don’t get it. I bet if you look up Arnold Palmer, you can find his wife’s name. And more. Let’s see.
Spouse: Kathleen Gawthrop (m. 2005–2016), Winifred Walzer (m. 1954–1999)
Children: Peggy Palmer, Amy Palmer
Grandson: Sam Saunders
Yep.
Anyway. That’s not what she was known for. Her talent was golf. Wright began playing golf by the age of 12. In 1952 she won the U.S. Golfing Association junior girls’ championship.
She attended Stanford University for one year before deciding to devote all of her time to golf. She won countless tournaments and awards. I won’t list them all here, as they are numerous and tedious to the end reader.
But she could hit the ball with a wallop, capable of drives that were 300 yards or better. They say she had a flawless swing. She went on to be one of the most successful players in the history of golf, with 82 career victories. One major tournament victory, after the next, after the next, after the next. As a pro. Better than Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
So how do we know about Zaharias? Well, she was probably a lesbian too, but for the public eye, she married George Zaharias. It was a good front and earned her more publicity dollars.
Truthfully? I grow tired of the unending discrimination in our country and the world. People with dark skin getting hanged from trees. Gay kids getting dragged behind trucks and tied to fence posts.
We are humans. All of us equals.
I’ll say what others won’t. I am tired of the supremacy platform. The kind we saw take hold yesterday in our nation’s Capitol when our Congressmen and women voted to acquit Trump. It is all about his power over “his” people, and his support of this white privilege, male privilege, heterosexual privilege.
Those Congresspeople want those Trump voters. The votes of whites, clinging to their guns and their religion. They offer little in the way of ideas to make this country better, other than to resort to violent actions against their “enemies.” They gain power by eliminating those who disagree with them or who are different from them.
Today is Mickey Wright’s birthday, damn it.
=========
“Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must — at that moment — become the center of the universe.”
― Elie Wiesel
=========
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and human rights.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
========
“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
― James Baldwin
==========
