Kay Stammers

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Kay Stammers
Full nameKatherine Esther Stammers
Country (sports) United Kingdom
Born(1914-04-03)3 April 1914
St Albans, Hertfordshire, England
Died23 December 2005(2005-12-23) (aged 91)
Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
PlaysLeft-handed
Singles
Highest rankingNo. 2 (1939)
Grand Slam singles results
French OpenQF (1934)
WimbledonF (1939)
US OpenSF (1935, 1936, 1939)
Doubles
Grand Slam doubles results
French OpenW (1935)
WimbledonW (1935, 1936)
US OpenF (1939)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
US OpenF (1935)

Katherine "Kay" Esther Stammers (3 April 1914 – 23 December 2005) was a female tennis player from the United Kingdom.

Career

Stammers was born on 3 April 1914[1] in St Albans, United Kingdom where her parents taught her to play tennis on the grass court at their family home.[2] Left-handed and with a good forehand,[2] Stammers played an attacking style of tennis[2] and was trained by Dan Maskell.[3]

Stammers played when

Wimbledon Championships and in singles matches at the 1935 and 1936 Wightman Cup.[3] At the 1935 Kent Championships in Beckenham, England, Stammers became the first British player to beat Wills Moody in 11 years.[3]

According to

The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Stammers was ranked in the world top ten in 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, and 1946, reaching a career high of world No. 2 in those rankings in 1939.[4]

Stammers won the women's doubles title at the Wimbledon Championships in 1935 and 1936 with partner

Peggy Scriven. Her best performances in women's doubles at the U. S. National Championships were in 1936, 1937, and 1938 when she reached the semifinals and in 1939 when she reached the final. In the 1936 semifinal, she and partner Marble were defeated by Jacobs and Sarah Palfrey Fabyan
6–2, 21–19. In the 1939 final, she and partner Freda James Hammersley lost to Marble and Palfrey Fabyan 6–1, 6–2.

Her other career singles highlights include winning the

Aldeburgh Open Hard Courts
(1931).

Appearance

Stammers' physical appearance ensured that she attracted more than the usual interest from the press

Hyannis Port compound.[2] She said that JFK was "spoilt by women. I think he could snap his fingers and they'd come running. And of course he was terribly attractive and rich and unmarried – a terrific catch really ... I thought he was divine."[2]

Personal life

In 1939, Stammers married Michael Menzies, then in the Welsh Guards.[2] During World War II, Stammers played exhibition matches on behalf of the Red Cross and served as an ambulance driver.[3] When the war ended, she captained Britain's Wightman Cup team for a couple of years.[3] In 1949, she and her husband moved to South Africa, where Menzies set up Hill Samuel's South African operation.[3] They remained there for nearly 20 years, until he was transferred to New York City to head the office there.[3] She had two sons and a daughter with him.[3]

After her divorce from Menzies in 1974, she married lawyer Thomas Walker Bullitt, whom she had met on the American tennis circuit.

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery during World War II.[2] The couple lived at Oxmoor Farm, near Louisville, Kentucky, which had been in the Bullitt family for ten generations.[2] Stammers laid out and maintained an English garden and indulged her passion for racehorses.[2] She helped run the annual steeplechases on the estate course in aid of a children's charity and, under the Oxmoor Charities Corporation, helped to plan schooling for event riders and summer concerts.[2]

Stammers continued to be interested in tennis throughout her life and attended Wimbledon annually until her age made it impossible to travel.[3] She died at her home in Louisville, Kentucky on 23 December 2005[7] and was buried in the family cemetery on 28 December 2005.

Grand Slam tournament finals

Singles: (1 runner-up)

Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Loss 1939 Wimbledon Championships Grass United States Alice Marble 2–6, 0–6

Women's doubles: (3 titles, 1 runner-up)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1935 French Championships Clay United Kingdom Margaret Scriven France Ida Adamoff
Denmark Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling		 6–4, 6–0
Win 1935 Wimbledon Championships Grass United Kingdom Freda James France Simonne Mathieu
Germany Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling		 6–1, 6–4
Win 1936 Wimbledon Championships Grass United Kingdom Freda James United States Helen Jacobs
United States Sarah Palfrey Fabyan		 6–2, 6–1
Loss
1939
 U. S. National Championships Grass United Kingdom Freda Hammersley United States Sarah Palfrey Fabyan
United States Alice Marble		 5–7, 6–8

Mixed doubles: (1 runner-up)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss
1935
 U. S. National Championships Grass Czechoslovakia Roderich Menzel United States Sarah Palfrey Fabyan
Spain Enrique Maier		 4–6, 6–4, 3–6

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
Tournament 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 – 1944 1945 19461 19471 Career SR
Australia A A A A A A A A A A NH NH A A 0 / 0
France A A 3R QF 1R A A A A NH R A A A 0 / 3
Wimbledon
 2R 4R 4R 3R QF QF 4R QF F NH NH NH QF QF 0 / 11
United States A A A QF SF SF QF QF SF A A A 3R A 0 / 7
SR 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 21

R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.

1In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.

See also

References

  1. ^ Birthday
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Kay Stammers obituary
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Kay Stammers". The Telegraph. 30 December 2005.
  4. ISBN 978-0-942257-41-0
    .
  5. AELTC
    .
  6. ^ "Favorite at Forest Hills". Time. 14 September 1936.
  7. ^ "Obituary". Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 13 December 2008.

External links

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