Water Rails & Oil - Historic Mid & South Jefferson County

M ILDRED E LLA “BABE” DIDRIKSON Z AHARIAS
“Babe” Didrikson—she later changed the spelling—was born to Norwegian immigrant parents
in Port Arthur on June 20, 1911, and was named the outstanding woman athlete in the world in
the twentieth century.
“Babe” Didrikson received her nickname because neighborhood children thought she batted like
Babe Ruth, legendary baseball player with the New York Yankees. She was a gifted, natural athlete
who excelled in a variety of sports.
After graduating from high school, Didrikson accepted a job with Employers Casualty in
Dallas. The position involved some office duties but her real work was to play for the firm’s semipro
basketball team. Didrikson also participated in track and field events in American Athletic
Union competition and the Olympics in 1932. She won five gold medals in the AAU event and
two gold, plus a sliver medal, in the Olympics.
Didrikson married professional wrestler George Zaharias in 1938, and thereafter he managed
her sports career and business affairs. After barnstorming with a women’s basketball team,
Didrikson turned to golf, the only professional sport open to women. She helped organize the
Ladies Professional Golf Association to establish a circuit for women golfers, then became its most
successful player in tournament victories and money won until 1955.
Didrikson briefly survived surgery to remove a malignant lesion in her colon, and even
returned to tournament play for a time before losing a bout with cancer on September 27, 1956.
plan in favor of complete integration. For
generations, the Thomas Jefferson Yellow
Jackets (whites) and Lincoln Bumblebees
(African Americans) were perennial high school
district champions and play-off threats; both
won state championships in football or
basketball. Pride and reluctance to give up such
traditions doubtless worked some hardship on
the students involved, but ultimately integrated
athletics helped ease the inevitable tension of
court-ordered integration. In the meantime, in
the area’s parochial education, Bishop Byrne
Catholic High School occupied new facilities on
Ninth Avenue after Sacred Heart, Saint Mary,
and Saint James high schools merged.
The 1960s were also a time of renewal. In
1967, the Corps of Engineers contracted with
Coastal Construction Company to build a new,
$8.5 million bridge to Pleasure Island—
dedicated in 1970 as the Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bridge—and two years later citizens celebrated
the opening of a new Port of Port Arthur,
financed by a $9 million bond issue. On the
other hand, the Kansas City Southern, which
had brought many of the first generation of
south Jefferson countians to help fulfill Arthur
Stilwell’s dream, ceased passenger service to the
area. The railroad’s depot and the old bridge to
Pleasure Island were demolished in 1968. Port
Arthur’s public transit service also ceased
operating in 1970, partly due to a driver’s
strike and because of denial of a request for a
subsidy increase.
Trustees for Port Arthur College agreed to
merge with Lamar University, headquartered in
Beaumont, and became Lamar University—Port
Arthur. The new arrangement began operating in
❖
“Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, July
1948. She was recognized as the
greatest female athlete in the world.
COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF THE GULF COAST,
PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS.
Chapter IV ✦ 39