🎾0️⃣2️⃣2️⃣ Mary K. Browne
Sketch of Mary K. Browne. Image: Naval History and Heritage Command.
Meet Mary Kendall Browne, a pioneering professional tennis player nicknamed “Brownie,” who in 1926 became the first American woman to contest the French women’s championship title–today’s Roland Garros tournament.
Born June 3, 1891, in Ventura, California, Browne attended high school at Los Angeles Polytechnic (Class of 1909). Her brother, Nat, taught her the game and she learned how to power the ball with her five-foot-two-inch frame. She was known for her aggressiveness on court.[1] According to Angela Lumpkin, Browne “displayed a distinct net game which she combined with brilliant, severe overhead game and the ability to force her openings with cunning changes of pace.”[2] As tennis expert Fred Hawthorne observed of Browne’s play in 1917,
“there is no woman in the world with a more comprehensive command of strokes and a fuller understanding of court technique.” [2]
Mary K. Browne. Photo: Library of Congress.
In 1912, Browne became the most dominant female tennis player in the country when she won the U.S. National Championship titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. It was a feat she repeated in 1913 and 1914. The only other American woman to accomplish such a triumph was Hazel Wightman, who from 1909 until 1911 won all three titles. Browne temporarily retired from the game in 1918 to work, but returned in 1921 to win the U.S. doubles and mixed doubles championship titles and vice champion in ladies singles. Throughout the 1920s she built a career representing the United States in international competitions, including the Wightman Cup, Wimbledon, and in 1926, the French National Championship.
The Context
Tennis, first introduced to the United States in 1874 by Mary Outerbridge, evolved in its first decades as a sport of the U.S. elites. It required leisure time and lawn surfaces to play on, but became more widely played by the first decades of the twentieth century; in the early 1900s through 1920s, female players from California marked the game, like Browne and Helen Wills (Voice 🎾003).
After the First World War, international play proliferated as ever-more non-nationals competed in the U.S. Nationals at Forest Hill (NY), Wimbledon, and after 1925, the French Championship (today known as Roland Garros). It was also the dawn of a new era; tennis was the domain of amateurism until the first professional tour was launched in 1926.
The Sports Diplomacy Connection
On June 12, 1926, Browne became the first American woman to contest the French Championship finals. She qualified after beating the Dutch national champion Cornelia “Kea” Bouman in the semifinals, 8-6, 6-2, thanks to “remarkable footwork, sound judgment, and maturer knowledge of the game,” according to the New York Times.
Mary K. Browne (left) and Suzanne Lenglen (right). Wikimedia Commons.
For the final, held in Saint Cloud amidst pouring rain, Browne faced French champion Suzanne Lenglen.
“Miss Browne played a wonderfully good game and thrice led hard attacks which obliged the French girl to do her best footwork,” New York Times noted while it pointed out how Browne, “lacked Mlle. Lenglen’s speed and youth and could only return the French girl’s drives impressively until one came over which no human being could reach.”
“It is impossible to figure her out at all,” the American said of her rival and friend.
“She is the most amazing woman on her feet I ever saw.”
Although Lenglen won 6-1, 6-0, she appreciated Browne’s fierce competition. “The match with Miss Browne was the best I have had in the tournament,” she told reporters.
While each represented their respective countries on the court, their friendship illustrated how tennis forged closer relationships. For example, during the final, Lenglen “ask[ed] the umpire to modify decisions in Miss Browne’s favor if she didn’t think they were right.”
Afterwards, the promoter C.C. Pyle signed both players to compete in the first professional tennis tour of the United States, which kicked off October 9, 1926 in Madison Square Garden; the Frenchwoman won all 38 games. Browne later coached tennis at Lake Eerie College, which positioned her as one of the premier tutors of the game. She also organized the first women’s tennis clinic in the United States.[3] But Browne was known for far more than her on-court expertise; she was a champion golfer, a self-taught artist, and during the Second World War served with the American Red Cross. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1957, and died in 1971.
As Browne wrote in her 1949 work, Design for Tennis, “Good tennis strokes happen not by accident, but by design.” [3]
[1] Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, “Browne, Mary Kendall ‘Brownie,’” Case Western Reserve University.
[2] Angela Lumpkin,“The Contributions of Women to the History of Competitive Tennis in the United States (1874-1974)” PhD Dissertation, Ohio State University 1974, 34.
[3] Browne, Mary K. “Design for Tennis. A.S. Barnes & Company, 1949.
Mapping the Connection
From Ventura, California, to Paris, France
Further Reading
[E] “Miss Browne Bows to Mlle. Lenglen,” New York Times, June 13, 1926.
[E] Browne, Mary K. Design for Tennis. A.S. Barnes & Company, 1949.
[E] Angela Lumpkin “The Contributions of Women to the History of Competitive Tennis in the United States (1874-1974)” PhD Dissertation, Ohio State University 1974.
[E] “Mary Kendall Browne,” International Tennis Hall of Fame.
How to Cite This Entry
Krasnoff, Lindsay Sarah. “Voices: Mary K. Browne,” FranceAndUS, https://www.franceussports.com/voices/022-mary-k-browne. (date of consultation).