Elizabeth Barnhill

Rose Austin is surprised she found tennis in the first place.  She grew up in a small Minnesota town with no tennis courts–and in the 40s and 50s, schools had very little in the way of sports for girls.  After graduation, Rose moved to Minneapolis, married, and had nine children.  With two girls and seven boys, Rose did not have much time to explore other interests but enjoyed living in a home on the bank of the St. Croix river.

Here is Rose’s introduction to tennis in her own words:  “When our oldest son was in junior high, the school was starting a tennis team and asked him to join.  In our neighborhood was a tennis court so we bought two racquets, and he and I would hit to help him get started.  He didn’t like it too much, but I couldn’t get enough so I began to take some group lessons and play with the people I met there.  So fun!”

Life changed again when, in 1980, Rose’s first husband died of a cancerous brain tumor at age 50, prompting her to go back to school, build her computer skills, and take a job with 3M.  3M had a large sports complex with 12 tennis courts, softball fields, and two golf courses.  Rose was able to play on the tennis ladder and get back to the sport she loved.  After retirement, she and her second husband moved to the Naples Bath and Tennis Club in Naples, FL.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Women’s Intersectionals were often held at NBTC.  Rose volunteered and met Larry Eichenbaum, and they worked together for many years to make the Intersectionals run smoothly.  Larry says, "Rose Austin is an extra-special tennis personality and friend who never says no to assisting as a volunteer with a USTA National Senior Women's Event.  I have known Rose since the first National Senior Women's Intersectional Event that I was requested to run at the Naples Bath & Tennis Club in 2000.  She was there as a volunteer who assisted in doing whatever it took to make the tournament a success. In the later years when the USTA moved the event to Boca Raton, FL, she would travel there for the weeklong festivities and competition working side by side with me contributing to the success of the tournament and training additional volunteers from the area.  When Rose was not volunteering to work an Intersectional Event, she was playing on her Florida Section's Intersectional Team.  Most importantly, I consider Rose a true friend for life and asset for the National Women's Tennis Organization."

Rose said, “At Intersectionals, I met the women who played the Grand Dames, and they were so inspiring, I wanted to join them.  I played the BallenIsles and Checket Cup several times, and then in 2014, I played the 80s Clay with Joanna Mele and we won the gold ball, my first.  Unbelievable!  How could a nobody like me have that happen?  Then I played the grass at Forest Hills with Jane Lutz, and we won another gold!”

At this point, Rose’s story sounds like a tennis fairy tale. “The USTA invited me to be on the Doris Hart 80s Cup team in Turkey.  I was over the moon.  It was a fabulous experience.  I had my 80th birthday sitting on the shore of the Mediterranean with my teammates:  Jane Lutz, Margaret Canby, and Mary John Lynch.  Unforgettable!”

Rose was also part of the 2015 80s team which was the first U.S. 80s team to win gold.  In 2019, a new Cup was begun for the 85s and Rose was on that team which also won the gold.   Rose has turned 88 this year and says “it is more of a challenge to travel, and I also like to play mahjongg, volunteer for some of my church activities, get together with my friends and spend time with my 23 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.  I have had a wonderful life so far and am looking forward to all that is to still be in my future.”

As I interviewed Rose for this story, I was reminded by how surprising life can be.  It was a desire to help her son that lit that tennis flame for Rose, it was her volunteer activity that rekindled it years later, and it is her wonderful resilience and attitude toward life that kept Rose on her path to tennis gold.  Thank you, Rose, for reminding our NWTO family that wherever we start, we never know what the future will hold.