Palfrey, Sarah H.
Tennis
b. Sept. 18, 1912, Sharon, MA
d. Feb. 27, 1996
Named the greatest female athlete in the history of Massachusetts in 1953, Palfrey was one of five girls in a family that had its own private tennis court. All five won at least one national junior championship. Sarah won three in a row, from 1928 through 1930, and was the only one of the girls to go on to success as an adult.
Although small at 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds, Palfrey was taught to come to net and volley by Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman. Her volleying skill made her an especially good doubles player. She and Alice Marble won the Wimbledon women's doubles championship in 1938 and 1939 and were the U. S. doubles champions from 1938 through 1940.
She also won the U. S. doubles title with Betty Nuthall of England in 1930 and with Helen Hull Jacobs in 1932 and 1935. Palfrey teamed with four different partners to win four U. S. mixed doubles championships, with Fred Perry in 1932, Enrique Mayer in 1935, with Donald Budge in 1937, and with Jack Kramer in 1941.
She almost became the only woman to win a championship in men's doubles. Because of the shortage of male players during World War II, she and her husband, Elwood Cooke, were allowed to play in the men's doubles event of the 1945 Tri-State Championships in Cincinnati. They reached the finals, where they lost to Bill Talbert and Hal Surface.
Palfrey reached the national women's singles three times during the 1930s, losing to Helen Hull Jacobs each time, but she won the title in 1941. She then took some time off because of pregnancy and returned to win the championship again in 1945. She was only the second woman to win the national title after having a child. (Wightman was the first.)
After retiring from serious competition, Palfrey wrote two instructional books, Tennis for Anyone and Winning Tennis and How to Play It. She also wrote many magazine articles about the sport.