DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Feb. 9, 2009 - Service arrangements for LPGA Founder Betty Jameson, who passed away last Saturday at the age of 89, have been set for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009, in the Betty Jameson Ballroom at the Delray Beach Golf Club. Jameson was one of the LPGA's 13 Founders and also conceived the idea of annually honoring the golfer with the lowest scoring average on the LPGA Tour. Lorena Ochoa was the most recent recipient of the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy.
Numerous LPGA members have memories of their time with Jameson and what she meant to the growth of the LPGA and women's golf. Several quotes are provided below. For the full obituary on Jameson, please visit LPGA.com.
QUOTES
Beth Daniel -
"We both lived down in South Florida. She was just like all of the other Founders were - very passionate about the LPGA Tour. She was a great ambassador to golf and, specifically, to women's golf. Betty was involved in many things in the community. I have a clinic every year down in the city of Delray Beach and she would come over and help out with that. She was just very passionate about the game and her life. She was a great lady and very fun to be around."
Gloria Ehret -
"I greatly appreciate the LPGA Founders. I had tremendous respect for Betty and admired her dedication to the game of golf. We all benefited from their hard work which opened many doors to those that followed."
Sandra Eriksson -
"I met Betty here (Delray Beach Golf Club) when the USGA was having their 100th anniversary and looking for stories. I was getting together some of the players in the area and extended the invitation for her to come and join in. It was probably a chance meeting, but our friendship has been over the past 15 years. She was definitely one of a kind and I feel that there's nobody quite like Betty. I think she did all women golfers a great service, especially in the early times of the Tour. I'm forever thankful that I had the time to be a friend and have her in our lives here at the club.
"She was here a couple weeks ago giving a golf lesson and we chatted for a while. She was a great icon to have at the club."
Marlene Hagge, LPGA founder -
"Betty was the sweetest, most caring person and she had an enormous heart. She had one of the most perfect golf swings I've ever witnessed. I am saddened by the loss of a wonderful friend, not just for myself, but for the LPGA and golf."
Marilynn Smith, LPGA founder -
"Betty was very gracious to the public, but also what I would consider a very strong-willed person. I recall her playing one of the Titleholders tournaments in the 1950s on a broken leg!
"Two of Betty's loves were golf and painting. She was a great painter and she interpreted golf in an artistic manner. This was especially true in her chipping and putting. Everyone thought she had one of the best grips on her club. She was a great student of the game - she had great rhythm and balance, but her interpretation in golf was in an artistic manner, not mechanical. I remember around the time she took lessons from Tommy Armour, she put little spikes on the inside edge of the left foot to help her pivot off her left foot on the backswing.
"During my first year on Tour, we had a day off before a tournament in New York City. Betty took me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was a most memorable visit; it was my first introduction to art. Her enthusiasm for the great painters made an impression on me."
Shirley Spork, LPGA Founder -
"She was a master student of the game. She sought knowledge from golf's best teachers her entire competitive life. She was an aficionada of abstract art as an admirer and creator of that art. On Tour, she visited each city's art museum. She was her own person."
Jack Peter, Sr. Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, World Golf Hall of Fame
"What I remember best about Betty was demonstrated the last time I saw her, which was at an LPGA dinner function in Orlando in 2007. After a smile, a hug and an exchange of niceties, she gave me an impromptu swing lesson … right there, near the buffet line! Her overflowing spirit and love of golf and life will never be forgotten. Her story--of determination, of passion and of success--will always remain an important part of the World Golf Hall of Fame and of golf's history in general."
Carol Mann -
"Betty was a elegant woman who was gifted with a pair of hands that crafted golf shots, pottery and oil paintings. Her stylish dress set an example for young players to be more dramatic in presenting themselves. Betty's vision for rewarding excellence was inspired by the greatness of her amateur friend Glenna Collett Vare, so she went out and purchased a beautiful silver plate and donated it to the LPGA, calling it the Vare Trophy, and presented it to the player with the lowest year-long scoring average. This award changed how we thought about a year's achievement. Instead of money won, we worked to keep our scores becoming lower and lower. Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright and Kathy Whitworth coveted this award. So did Annika and Lorena, 40 years later."
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