The New York Times, Wednesday March 27, 1968.
Eleonora Sears, Pioneer in Women's Sports, Dies
Leader in Society Capitals Excelled in Athletics —Won Tennis Titles
PALM BEACH, Fla., March 26 (AP) — Eleonora Randolph Sears, who paved the way for women's entrance into sports at the turn of the century, died today at the age of 86 after a brief illness.
A funeral service is scheduled for Monday in Trinity Church in Boston.
All-Round Athlete
In the early days of the century, when. sports for proper young ladies seemed limited to such gentle pursuits as croquet, Eleonora Sears excelled in horseback riding, tennis, squash, marathon walking and numerous other athletic activities.
She drove motor cars in the first days of the automobile, was one of the first women to fly in an airplane, became a crack shot with rifle and pistol, sailed yachts with championship skill and indulged in baseball, football and even boxing.
Miss Sears, who was usually called Eleo, was acclaimed as one of the country's greatest women athletes and as one of the most. striking sports personalltles of her time.
Besides her sports activities, she was acknowledged as a leader of the social world embracing Boston's North Shore, Newport, R. I., New York and other capitals of social splendor.Miss Sears was the daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family, one of Boston's oldest, and was a great-great-granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. She delighted in startling Boston's Brahmins with her athletic exploits.
With a riding hat pulled down over her face, her hands crammed into the pockets of her riding breeches and her feet planted firmly apart in low-heeled boots, she presented a boyish appearance. Her figure was slender, but she had the strength and agility of a finely trained athlete.
“It isn't my ambition to be the best dressed woman in Boston,” she once remarked with typical directness. “I think that interest in clothes should be perfectly casual.”
Among Best-Dressed
This did not prevent her, however, from being listed as one of the best-gowned women in America in the early part of the century. She frequently appeared splendidly clothed for social affairs in the evening, although she preferred the tweedy tailored clothes of sportswoman during the day.
Her name was, linked romantically with several wealthy social figures in Boston and New York in years past. She was reported to be engaged in 1911 to Harold S. Vanderbilt the America's Cup yachtsman who invented contract bridge, but she never married.
Miss Sears was a favorite dancing partner of the Duke of Windsor, then the Prince of Wales, during his 1924 visit to this country, She had known the future King Edward VIII during her many visits to Britain for squash and tennis competitionships.
She was women's national doubles tennis champion four times, twice with Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman and twice with Molla Bjurstd Mallory, and she was mixed doubles champion with Willis Davis. This was in the period that spanned World War I.
Miss Sears, who was twice a finalist in the national tennis singles, won the national squash racquets championship and was captain of the United States international squash racquets team. She also was president of the national women's squash racquets association.
Horses, however, remained the principal preoccupation of her life. She was an expert rider and jumper who maintained a championship stable of show horses as well as a string of racers. She rode about four hours a day during much of her adult life.
Miss Sears caused a sartorial sensation when she appeared in riding trousers as one of the first women to ride astride before World war I. It was considered so sinful that sermons were preached against her, a fact that only caused her to chuckle.
For several decades, her horses won blue ribbons almost every year at the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden. She frequently rode her own horses in the show.
Her marathon walking attracted wide attention in the 1920's as she hiked from Providence to Boston, from Fon- tainebleau to Paris and completed similar expeditions. In 1925, she walked 44 miles from Providence to Boston in 11 hours and 5 minutes.
She completed the Providence to Boston walk in 9 hours and 53 minutes the following year.
Her walking outfit included a black woolen skirt and jacket, thin woolen stockings with short woolen socks over them and heavy shoes that were cut low. The outfit was topped by a sports hat of white felt.
Miss Sears was born in Boston on Sept. 28, 1881, the daughter of Frederick Richard Sears, whose family had acquired wealth in shipping and real estate. It was on her mother's side that she was descended from Jefferson. Her mother's father was Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Minister to France.
Her interest in sports was early and enduring. It resulted in the accumulation of over 240 trophies. It also gave her a deeply tanned complexion that seemed to glow with health and vigor.
“I began exercising the first time I fell out of my crib,” Miss Sears once remarked.
In Newport, she once swam the five miles from Bailey's Beach to French Beach. She also organized a polo team that beat a men's team. Her marathon walking extended into the 1930's, when she was middle-aged.
Miss Sears continued to operate a stable of thoroughbred horses at her estate in Prides Crossing, Mass.
“Saratoga's been going on forever,” she remarked not long ago, “but it's not half as good as it used to be.”
Eleonora Sears, Pioneer in Women's Sports, Dies The New York Times, Wednesday March 27, 1968.