If tennis had a matriarch, it would be Judy. 

She found the game through her first husband and never let go. "Eventually I had to go to work at a tennis club because of my habit," she said. "I was hooked." She wasn't kidding. Judy spent the next half century supporting and growing St. Louis tennis from the inside out, managing indoor clubs, running the Dwight Davis Tennis Center, and in 1992 becoming the first-ever Executive Director of the St. Louis District. 

But her heart was always in the tournaments. Local, sectional, collegiate, national; she ran them all, including the National Public Parks. In 1994, she helped pull off the Olympic Festival at Dwight Davis, coordinating nearly 200 volunteers to strike volleyball courts the night before so tennis could happen the next morning. She called herself a roadie. Everyone else called her indispensable. 

She was known as tough but loveable. She believed in rules. She had been known to remove parents from tournaments. And when kids came to report their scores, she always asked the same question: were you a winner or a learner? 

The awards followed. The USTA Missouri Valley Hall of Fame. The 2016 Blue Ribbon Award as one of the top three junior tournament directors in the country. Judy received all of it with the same answer: "All of this is because I do what I love. How great is that?" 

(2019)