DuPont, Margaret Evelyn Osborne

Margaret Osborne duPont, number-one-ranked women’s tennis player and thoroughbred horse breeder, was born on March 4, 1918, in Joseph, Oregon, to Eva Jane (Burrell) Osborne and Charles Marcus St. Lawrence Osborne. She grew up on ranch in Joseph until her father’s poor health forced the family to move when she was about nine or ten. The family settled in Spokane, Washington, where Margaret Osborne first began playing tennis. Around two years later, they moved to San Francisco, where she played tennis at Golden Gate Park, which was located a block from her family’s home. Osborne received her first formal lessons from Howard Kinsey, a former Davis Cup player. She competed in junior tournaments on the Pacific Coast and wrote articles for American Lawn Tennis magazine. Osborne trained for a year with renowned tennis coach Tom Stow at the Berkeley Tennis Club. On a visit to the club, Wightman Cup founder Hazel Wightman observed the young tennis player and judged her to be “too nice” to win a national championship. Throughout her career, Margaret Osborne duPont was acknowledged for her sportsmanship and humility. Contrary to Wightman’s expectations, however, these traits did not limit her as an athlete. In 1936 Osborne graduated from the High School of Commerce in San Francisco and won the singles and doubles titles at the USTA’s girls’ eighteen-and-under national championship in Philadelphia. She chose to pursue a career in tennis.

During World War II, Osborne worked as a clerk six days a week at a ship-building factory in Sausalito, California. In 1941 she was elected secretary-treasurer for the Northern California Tennis Association and won her first Grand Slam title in women’s doubles with Sarah Palfrey Cooke at the U.S. National Championships. When Cooke became pregnant the following year, Osborne began playing with nineteen-year-old Louise Brough on the recommendation of William duPont, Jr., tennis promoter and head of the wealthy duPont family of Delaware. Osborne went on to marry duPont on November 26, 1947, and moved to Bellevue Hall, the duPont family estate in Wilmington, Delaware, where William built tennis courts for his wife’s benefit. He also bred and trained thoroughbred horses at the estate and imparted to Margaret a lifelong love for the animals. Although her marriage to William afforded Margaret many benefits, it also restricted her. Due to her husband’s dislike of parties, she was unable to take part in any post-victory celebrations during her marriage. Most significantly, her marriage prevented her from ever competing in the Australian Championships. Because of William’s respiratory trouble, he traveled to California in the winter, while the championships were being played. He insisted that Margaret accompany him.

Margaret duPont and Louise Brough dominated women’s tennis in the early post-war period. As a doubles team, “Ozzie and Broughie” won a record-setting twenty Grand Slam titles (twelve at the U.S. National Championships, five at Wimbledon, and three at Roland-Garros). In 1989 this total was tied by Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. As singles opponents, they played two of the longest women’s Grand Slam finals in history. The 1948 U.S. National final, won by duPont, lasted forty-eight games; the 1949 Wimbledon final, won by Brough, lasted forty-three. The U.S. final was further drawn out by two rain delays, and the women were subject to chants to “bring on the men” by the impatient crowd. This match also came only two days after the death of duPont’s father in an automobile accident and perhaps exemplified her ability to play calmly under pressure. In 1951 duPont briefly retired from the game after she became pregnant. One of the few women to win a Grand Slam title after giving birth, she won nine titles (all in women’s and mixed doubles) after the birth of her son, William “Bill” duPont III, in 1952. DuPont and Brough resumed their partnership in the mid-1950s and won the U.S. women’s doubles titles in 1955, 1956, and 1957. DuPont was also highly accomplished in mixed doubles and won ten Grand Slam titles with four different partners. Together with Neale Frasher, she won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title in 1962. At the age of forty-four, she was the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam title until 2003, when Navratilova won the Australian mixed doubles title at the age of forty-six.

DuPont’s total of thirty-seven Grand Slam titles (thirty-one of them in women’s and mixed doubles) has only been surpassed by four women: Margaret Court, Navratilova, Billy Jean King, and Serena Williams. She achieved this total despite World War II halting play in Britain and Europe for several of her prime playing years, leaving the game to have a child, and never competing in the Australian Championships. DuPont was most accomplished at the U.S. Championships, where she holds the records for most women’s doubles titles (at thirteen) and most mixed doubles titles (at nine). Together with her three singles titles, her total of twenty-five U.S titles also remains a record. DuPont was also a leading player on the United States Wightman Cup team. She competed in ten competitions from 1946 to 1962 and was undefeated in ten singles and nine doubles matches. From 1953 to 1965 she served as team captain for nine competitions, eight of which resulted in American victories. She also served as chair of the Wightman Cup Committee from 1954 to 1966. The United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) ranked duPont a top ten female tennis player fourteen times during her career. Having first broken into the top ten in 1938 and last achieving a top ten ranking in 1958, she set the female longevity record for rankings. She was ranked as the number one female player from 1948 to 1950.

In 1962 duPont retired from competitive play. She divorced William duPont in 1964 but continued living in the East so that her son could stay close to his father. After William’s death the following year, however, duPont and her son moved to El Paso, the home of fellow tennis player and friend Margaret Varner Bloss. Together duPont and Bloss had been part of the Wightman Cup team and reached the women’s doubles finals at Wimbledon in 1958. Bloss had once moved in with the duPonts at Bellevue Hall, and the two lived together in El Paso. Their residence was located near the El Paso Country Club tennis courts. Together they started a successful thoroughbred horse breeding and racing business. DuPont was active in civic life in El Paso. She was a member of the El Paso Tennis Club and served as the El Paso-area vice-president of the Southwestern Tennis Association from 1971 through 1985. From 1969 to 1981 she also wrote a tennis column for the El Paso Herald-Post.

Margaret Osborne duPont, at the age of ninety-four, died at her El Paso home on October 24, 2012. She was interred at Restlawn Memorial Park in El Paso. Billie Jean King memorialized duPont as one of her “she-roes” and a major influence on her career. DuPont received numerous honors throughout her career. She was awarded the USLTA’s Service Bowl in 1945 and the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s Educational Merit Award in 1974. In 1959 a block of tennis courts in San Fransisco was named the Margaret Osborne duPont Playground in her honor. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967, the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame in 1978, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Women’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 1996, the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame in 1999, and the US Open Court of Champions in 2010. In 2013 the Greater El Paso Tennis Association established its hall of fame, and duPont and Bloss were inducted as charter members.