Member Spotlight: Sue Bramlette
Robbie Dimond
What was the most popular national tennis tourney you ever played?
When I asked this question to a wide range of top tennis players, the answers were unanimous: “Houston Racquet Club National Clays’. And the reasons given were: ‘Classy facility with 19 soft courts and good maintenance’; ‘delicious lunches’; super friendly staff and clear communication with the players; large # of entries and smoothly run matches; close bathrooms; proper seeding; attention to details that players want—like rapid posting of scores for all to see; sensible adjustments of schedules when weather was a disruptive factor.” Managing this, the most loved tournament for over 20 years, was Sue Bramlette serving as Tennis Director and Pro. In 2023, they had 271 entrants! Her committee of Judy Job, Cathy Perrin, Harriet Hulbert, Daryl Lerner, and others were supremely efficient and super dedicated to this event. The only thing that was sometimes not coordinated perfectly for over two decades was the weather!
Sue Bramlette was not only the key director of this tournament, but also a champion player! Her tennis story is an amazing one! Go figure this: Sue started tennis at the grand old age of 32!
Born in Quincy, MA, Sue Fleischer attended high school in Clearwater, FL and won an academic scholarship to Vanderbilt. She graduated with degrees in Nursing and an M.S. in Community Health. Sue founded ‘The People’s Health Center’ in Briceville, Tennessee operating out of a double–wide trailer with a lab and a pharmacy. She was on the faculty of Vanderbilt, the University of Tennessee, and MeHarry Medical College. Sue married her Basketball Coach [10 years later] and attorney, Bob Bramlette, and had two children. They are Christie Pettit [counselor and author] and James [M.D. neuro-radiologist]. She has six grandchildren and two of them, Shea and Mims, are top-ranked tennis players!
So, at 32, Bob encouraged his athletic wife to take a tennis lesson from his club pro, Jim Parker, at the Houston Racquet Club. Sue kept this tennis going with champion Parker for 20 years and became USPTA certified five years after her first lesson. She won the 35+ National Doubles Championship only three years after starting tennis with Jane Strnadel. [Whew! Now we are talking here about a fast learner!]
Sue now has 11 Gold balls, 21 Silver, and 7 Bronze. Two of her gold balls were with her daughter, Christie, and maybe another one awaits with her granddaughter, Shea, in a new category that Sue has just helped get started. Stay tuned! She was selected as USPTA Player of the Year in the 35’s, 45’s, and 55’s and represented the USTA in the World Cup in Croatia and Turkey. Her proudest tennis moment was being inducted into the Texas Tennis Hall of Fame in 2016. [That was the same year as my brother, R. Dennis Ralston, was inducted.]
So, what happened to Houston and our beloved tennis director? I reached out to Sue in North Carolina where she was helping with the Asheville flooding after the recent hurricane. Sue and Bob moved to a family owned property in Cashiers, North Carolina in the Lonesome Valley community that is 3,500 feet high and the largest box canyon east of the Mississippi. In the winter, Sue may be found in Atlanta with ‘grands’ or Beaufort, South Carolina playing tennis while Bob searches for birdies on the golf course. Most tennis ladies were devastated that she and her well-managed tournament are no longer in Houston. However, rest assured that wherever Sue goes, she will be energizing others and making a positive difference in their lives!