Katherine or Kathrine "Kay" Winthrop McKean (July 17, 1914 – February 12, 1997) was a top-ranked American

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player, who, in 1936 at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, played doubles with

Alice Marble Alice Marble (September 28, 1913 – December 13, 1990) was an American tennis player who won 18 Grand Slam championships between 1936 and 1940: five in singles, six in women's doubles, and seven in mixed doubles. She was ranked world No. 1 in 193 ...

. She was active from 1931 to 1957.

Early life and family

Kay Winthrop was born in

Ipswich, Massachusetts Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A reside ...

on July 17, 1914. She was one of six children born to Frederic Bayard Winthrop (1868–1932) and Sarah Barroll Thayer (1885–1938). Her siblings included Robert Winthrop; Dorothy Winthrop; Frederic Bayard Winthrop, Jr; John Winthrop; Nathaniel Thayer Winthrop. Through her father, she was a direct descendant of

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...

: 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. Her maternal grandfather was banker and railroad executive,

Nathaniel Thayer III Nathaniel Thayer (June 13, 1851 – March 21, 1911) was an American banker and railroad executive. Early life Thayer was born on June 13, 1851 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of Nathaniel Thayer Jr. (1808–1883) and Cornelia Paterson ...

and through him, she was descended from the Van Rensselaer,

Schuyler Schuyler may refer to: Places United States * Schuyler County, Illinois * Schuyler County, Missouri * Schuyler, Nebraska, a city * Schuyler County, New York * Schuyler, New York, a town * Schuyler Island, Lake Champlain, New York * Schuyler Creek ...

and Thayer families. In 1932, Winthrop attended

Foxcroft School Foxcroft School, founded in 1914 by Charlotte Haxall Noland, is a college-preparatory boarding and day school for girls in grades 9-12, located near Middleburg, Virginia, United States. In its century of existence, Foxcroft has educated the daug ...

Career

Kay Winthrop entered U.S. Championships tournament every year from 1931 to 1947. She interrupted in 1948 since she was pregnant, and returned in 1952. Winthrop entered

in 1937, playing doubles with

, and 1946. Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she was in tour in South America with

Jack Kramer John Albert Kramer (August 1, 1921 – September 12, 2009) was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s. He won three Grand Slam tournaments (the U.S. Championships in 1946 and 1947, Wimbledon in 1947). He led the U.S. Davis Cup tennis ...

Sarah Palfrey Sarah Hammond Palfrey Danzig (née Palfrey; September 18, 1912 – February 27, 1996) was an American tennis player whose adult amateur career spanned 19 years, from June 1926 until September 1945. She won two singles, nine women's doubles, and ...

and

Bobby Riggs Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December ...

. Her titles are 1944 US Indoors, and runner-up in 1938, 1943, and 1945. She was number 9 in the US Rankings in 1936 and 1939. Winthrop won four national titles in the junior girls' tennis tournament, and five national titles in the women's league, in indoors both singles and doubles. Winthrop gave up competitive tennis in 1970, aged 56, but continued to play socially for many years later.

Personal life

On November 21, 1947, Winthrop married Quincy Adams Shaw McKean (1891–1971). They met at a cocktail party while McKean was still married to his first wife, painter

Margarett Sargent Margarett Williams Sargent (August 31, 1892 – 1978) was a noted painter in the Ashcan School and a follower of George Luks. She exhibited as Margarett Sargent and Margarett W. McKean. Early life and education Margarett Williams Sargent was bor ...

(1892–1978). McKean had bought the Samuel Corning House in

Beverly, Massachusetts Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Shore, Beverly incl ...

in 1920 (which was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1990). Together, Kay and Shaw had five 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, daughter of Charles Forbes Kaye. On March 14, 2016, David McKean was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. Kay Winthrop McKean died on February 12, 1997, in

Hamilton, Massachusetts Hamilton is a town in the eastern central portion of Essex County in eastern Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 7,561. Currently the town has no manufacturing industry and no industrially-zoned land. Though ...

Honors

In 1990, Kay Winthrop was inducted into the New England Tennis Hall of Fame.

US Indoor Championships

Singles

Doubles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKean, Katherine Winthrop 1914 births 1997 deaths American female tennis players Professional tennis players before the Open Era Tennis people from Massachusetts People from Ipswich, Massachusetts Sportspeople from Essex County, Massachusetts 20th-century American women 20th-century American people