Althea Gibson

Althea married William Darben in 1965. They were introduced to each other through Rosemary Darben, a tennis player who also happened to be the tennis player’s best friend. The eleven-year-old marriage ended in divorce.

Althea entered the wedlock again in 1983. This relationship, with Sydney Llewellyn, her one time tennis coach, also culminated in divorce five years later. Despite two marriages, she had no children of her own.

This iconic tennis player succumbed to respiratory problems and bladder infections on September 28th, 2003. She was also a victim of a heart attack, but managed to survive it.

Born in Clarendon County, South Carolina, on August 25th 1927, to cotton farmers Daniel and Annie Bell Gibson, Althea was the eldest of all her siblings, which included three sisters and a brother, apart from her. The rest of her siblings were born in Harlem, a place where the family migrated when the great depression affected the rural farmers.

As a child, she often didn’t turn up at school, but developed a strong liking towards sports.

Her family resided close to the area which belonged to the ‘Police Athletic League’, and was meant for sport-related activities. This was where she learnt to play paddle tennis, and by 1939 she went on to win the New York City’s ‘Women Paddle Tennis championship’.

Having established herself as a pro in paddle tennis in her neighbourhood, Althea’s talent was noted by musician Buddy Walker. He encouraged her to play tennis and thus began Gibson’s tryst with the sport.

She put up an impressive show at the recreational games, which was organized by the local authorities. This led to her enrolment to the ‘Cosmopolitan Tennis Club’, Harlem, in 1940. Her family struggled to make ends meet and was unable to sponsor her membership. However, after realizing her potential, the families in her neighbourhood chipped in to raise funds for her membership.

This budding tennis player’s first rendezvous with glory happened in 1941, when she won the ‘New York State Championship’, an event organized by ‘American Tennis Association (ATA)’. The ‘ATA’ was an organization which sponsored and promoted African-American players in tennis. Her success in the tournament, gave this player the opportunity to hone her skills under the tutelage of physician Walter Johnson.

In 1944, and the year later, she emerged victorious in the girls category of the ‘ATA National Championship’.

She shifted base from Harlem to North Carolina in 1946, after the physician Hubert A. Eaton decided to offer her financial assistance. The same year, she reached the finals in the women’s category of the ‘ATA National Championship’, but lost the tournament.

In the years 1957- 58, Althea was ranked number one amongst the women belonging to the United States and from across the World. She was honoured as the ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ by the Associated Press.

Gibson’s contribution to tennis was appraised, when she was inducted into the ‘International Tennis Hall of Fame’ in 1971.

This sportswoman was honoured by the 'National Collegiate Athletic Association' with the ‘Theodore Roosevelt Award’ in 1991. It was for the first time since the inception of the award that a female was receiving the honour.