Katherine Winthrop McKean
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Katherine or Kathrine "Kay" Winthrop McKean (July 17, 1914 - February 12, 1997) was an amateur tennis player, a doubles partner of Alice Marble at Wimbledon in 1936. She was active from 1931 to 1957.
Early life and family
Kay Winthrop was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a direct descendant of John Winthrop, English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony:[1][2] the descendant line is Gov. John Winthrop, Gov. John Winthrop II, Magistrate Wait Still Winthrop, John F. R. S Winthrop, John Still Winthrop, Francis Bayard Winthrop, Thomas Charles Winthrop, Robert Winthrop, Frederic Bayard Winthrop. Kay Winthrop's parents were Frederic Bayard Winthrop (November 15, 1868 - May 6, 1932) and Sarah Barroll Thayer (born February 18, 1885). She had 5 siblings: Robert Winthrop; Dorothy Winthrop; Frederic Bayard Winthrop, Jr; John Winthrop; Nathaniel Thayer Winthrop.
In 1932 Winthrop attended Foxcroft School.[3]
Career
Kay Winthrop entered Forest Hills Tennis Classic tournament every year from 1931 to 1947. She interrupted in 1948 since she was pregnant, and returned in 1952.
Winthrop entered Wimbledon in 1936, a doubles partner of Alice Marble, and 1946. She toured South America before World War II with Sarah Palfrey, Jack Kramer and Bobby Riggs.[2]
Her titles are 1944 US Indoors, and RU in 1938, 1943, and 1945. She was #9 in the US Rankings in 1936 and 1939.
Winthrop won four national junior girls' tennis titles, playing out of Boston, and five national women's titles, in indoors singles and doubles.[2]
Winthrop gave up competitive tennis in 1970, aged 56, but continued to play socially for many years later.
US Indoor Championships
Singles
| Year | Champion | Runner-up | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1938 |  Virginia Hollinger | Katherine Winthrop McKean 1/3 | 6–1, 2–6, 6–3 |
| 1943 | Pauline Betz 3/4 | Katherine Winthrop McKean 2/3 | 6–4, 6–1 |
| 1944 | Katherine Winthrop McKean | Helen Pedersen Rihbany 3/3 | 6–0, 7–5 |
| 1945 | Helen Pedersen Rihbany 1/2 | Katherine Winthrop McKean 3/3 | 4–6, 6–2, 6–3 |
Doubles
| Year | Champions | Runners-up | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1938 | Virginia Rice Johnson 1/4 Katherine Winthrop McKean 1/4 | Norma Taubele Barber 4/5 Grace Surber | 4–6, 6–4, 6–4 |
| 1941 | Pauline Betz 1/2 Dorothy Bundy Cheney | Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman 4/5 Katherine Winthrop McKean 1/2 | 6–4, 6–3 |
| 1942 | Virginia Rice Johnson 2/4 Katherine Winthrop McKean 2/4 | Mrs. Philip Theopold Virginia Ellis | 6–2, 6–0 |
| 1944 | Virginia Rice Johnson 3/4 Katherine Winthrop McKean 3/4 | Norma Taubele Barber 5/5 Mary Jane Donnalley | 3–6, 8–6, 6–0 |
| 1945 | Virginia Rice Johnson 4/4 Katherine Winthrop McKean 4/4 | Helen Pedersen Rihbany 1/4 Betty Grimes Stokum | 6–4, 7–5 |
| 1947 | Doris Hart 1/2 Barbara Scofield Davidson 1/3 | Helen Pedersen Rihbany 2/4 Katherine Winthrop McKean 2/2 | 6–1, 6–1 |
Personal life
On November 21, 1947, Katharine Winthrop married Quincy Adams Shawn Mckean (November 1, 1891 - August 1971), a polo-playing, dog-breeding Boston aristocrat and owner of an estate called Prides. They met at a cocktail part while Mckean was still married to his first wife.[1] In 1920 Shawn Mckean bought the Samuel Corning House in Beverly, Massachusetts, and made it a part of Prides, a Colonial Revival complex he and his wife had built on their 54-acre (22 ha) estate. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Shawn Mckean's first wife was painter Margarett Sargent (1892-1978).
Kay and Shawn Mckean had 5 children: the first being John McKean, born on August 7, 1948, the last being David McKean, born in 1956. In 1988 David married Kathleen Mary Kaye, a former model with the Ford Modeling Agency, daughter of Charles Forbes Kaye, chairman and chief executive officer of the Xtra Corporation, a shipping container company in Boston.[4] On March 14, 2016, David McKean was sworn in as the Ambassador to Luxembourg.[5]
The McKeans were also active in golf and horse racing, they owned thoroughbred horses.[2]
Kay Winthrop Mckean died on February 12, 1997, at her home in Hamilton, Massachusetts, her final years overshadowed by Alzheimer's disease.[2]
Kay Winthrop was named to the New England Tennis Hall of Fame in 1990.[2][6]
References
- 1 2 Moore, Honor (2009). The White Blackbird: A Life of the Painter Margarett Sargent by Her Grandaughter.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Katharine McKean, Tennis Player, 82". New York Times, FEB. 22, 1997. 1997. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
- ↑ "Lost Alumnae – December 2012" (PDF). Retrieved 11 August 2017.
- ↑ "Miss Kaye Is Wed To David McKean". New York Times. 1988. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
- ↑ "Ambassador to Luxembourg: Who Is David McKean?". Retrieved 11 August 2017.
- ↑ "USTA NEW ENGLAND HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES" (PDF). Retrieved 11 August 2017.