Thelma Kingsbury

Thelma Kingsbury (later, in succession: Thelma Scovil, Thelma Welcome, Thelma Lougheed) was an English born, USA naturalized, sportswomen who won major badminton titles on the British Isles and then in the USA from the mid 1930's to the early 1950's. Equally adept in singles and doubles she won two women's singles titles and four women's doubles titles at the prestigious All-England Championships between 1933 and 1937 [Pat Davis, The "Guinness Book of Badminton" (Enfield, Middlesex, England: Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1983) 106, 107.] . In the 1935-1936 season she achieved a British "Grand Slam" by winning the open singles titles of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales [Herbert Scheele, The "International Badminton Federation Handbook for 1971" (Canterbury< Kent, England: J. A. Jennings Ltd., 1971) 163, 209, 273, 317.] . After emigrating from Britain to the USA she won the U.S. women's singles title in 1941 and shared the U.S. women's doubles title with Janet Wright in 1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1950 [Scheele, 312, 313.] . Though well past 30 by the early 1950's she continued to play highly competitive singles matches with such formidable opponents as Ethel Marshall, Margaret Varner, and a teenage Judy Devlin (Hashman). Thelma Kingsbury was among the initial class of players elected to the U.S. Badminton Hall of Fame in 1956.

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