(1936-1990)
Betty Meade was pure perseverance. A Philadelphian who went to Penn, Meade picked up squash at age twenty-six when she joined the Cynwyd Club. Under the tutelage of Ted Friel and her future husband Newt, she went from neophyte to national champion in just four seasons. In 1962 she won the first tournaments she entered (the Philadelphia Districts B division) and the Manheim Challenge (for novice players). Meade went on to capture three Pennsylvania state titles, two Philadelphia Districts (A division), two Wilmington Country Club Invitationals, two New Jersey state titles and one New York state title. She took up doubles in 1968 and on the left wall took the nationals with Bunny Vosters, as well as the Philadelphia Districts with Jane Stauffer. Meade played a power game, accentuated with a deadly reverse corner. In March 1968, just a week after becoming the fourth American woman to win both the national singles and doubles in the same year, Meade lost her right leg at the knee in a car accident. With tremendous courage and optimism, Meade continued to play and coach tennis and took up golf (she regularly broke 80). After an eight-year battle, Betty Meade died of cancer at age fifty-three.
National Champion 1966, 1967, 1968
National Doubles Champion 1968
