Mildred “Babe” Didrikson
Zaharias
Born: 1914 In Port Arthur, Texas
Exact Date Unknown
Died: September 27, 1956 in
Galveston, Texas
Family
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Mother: Hannah Didrikson
Father: Ole Didrikson
Brothers: Ole Jr., Luis, and Arthur
Sisters: Dora, Nancy, and Lillie
Husband: George Zaharias
Early Life
• She was not the best in school, but she had a
great work ethic and her parents always tried to
help her.
• In school she earned the reputation of bully
because she would challenge anyone who
annoyed her to a fistfight.
• She earned the nickname Babe because she hit
so many homeruns when she played baseball.
• When she wasn’t playing sports she loved to
dance and play the harmonica.
High School
• She played fifteen different sports well in
high school.
• For her basketball team she was an AllAmerican basketball player three different
times.
• Later in high school she decided to play
for a semi professional basketball team
and she led them to a national
championship.
Track and Field
• In nineteen thirty-two she won two gold
medals and a silver medal in track and
field at the age of eighteen.
• In one track and field meet she set four
records in three hours.
• For another track meet she scored thirty
points and in second place was a whole
athletic club with twenty-two points.
Other Sports Accomplishments
• Most sports experts consider her the best
female athlete of all time.
• Babe was also known for her great
sportsmanship.
• In a baseball exhibition game she struck
out Joe DiMaggio and he is in the Hall of
Fame.
Last Years
• Two years before she died she underwent
cancer surgery. It worked at the time but
the cancer came back two years later.
• In nineteen fifty-six she died of colon
cancer in John Sealy Hospital in
Galveston, Texas.