pPARAhPAR@`ÿÿÿÿÿÿÀTEXT`²Connolly, Maureen Catherine 1934Ð1969 tennis player Born in San Diego, California, on September 17, 1934, Maureen Connolly began playing tennis at the age of ten. After a few months of training under a professional teacher she entered her first tournament and in 1947 won the girlÕs fifteen-and-under title in the Southern California Invitational. By the time she was fifteen she had won more than 50 championships and had failed to win only 4 tournaments. In 1949 she became the youngest girl ever to win the national junior championship, and she successfully defended the title the following year. In 1951, her second year in womenÕs division play, she won eight major tournaments and lost three, and helped the U.S. Wightman Cup team to victory. In September of that year she won the national womenÕs singles championship at Forest Hills and was just a few months short of being the youngest woman ever to hold that title. Dubbed ÒLittle MoÓ by an affectionate press, Connolly was deceptively slight and engaging off court, but in action she displayed awesome power in her drives and a distractingly expressionless face. In 1952 she retained her U.S. title and won the prestigious Wimbledon championship in England. The next year she became the first woman to achieve the tennis Ògrand slam,Ó winning the Australian, French, English, and U.S. championships. In 1954 she won her third Wimbledon title and second French title. From 1951 through 1954 she was a regular Wightman Cup team member and did not lose a single match in four years of cup play. An Associated Press sportswritersÕ poll named her woman athlete of the year in 1952, 1953, and 1954. In 1954 she suffered a crushed leg in a horseback riding accident and never again entered tournament play. She was subsequently a tennis instructor. In 1968 she was elected to the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame. She died in Dallas, Texas, on June 21, 1969. Movie: From the newsreel ÒTennis I.Ó †styl`!5ª5ª&5ª5!IŠ5ªŒ !Ilink`