Marjorie Morrill

Marjorie Morrill Painter Whiting (née Morrill; March 29, 1908 – November 27, 2009) known during her tennis career as Marjorie 'Midge' Morrill, was an American female tennis player who was ranked #2 in the United States in 1930. During the period of 1928 to 1934, she was ranked in the top 10 four times.

Personal life

Morrill was the daughter of Joseph Morrill, a Boston lawyer, and Olive Morison Morrill, and lived on Glenridge Road in Dedham, Massachusetts. Joseph Morrill gave land to the Dedham Tennis Club to build courts on the same street. Marjorie Morrill was known to "spend hours every day hitting the ball against the backboard there.”

Morrill was married to Whitfield Painter for 42 years and had three children with him, Nancy, Margot, and Whitfield, Jr. The Painter family moved frequently around the country to accommodate Mr. Painter's sales job with Plymouth Cordage. After the elder Whitfield's death, she married John Whiting, who also predeceased her after seven years of marriage. Morrill died on November 27, 2009, in her 101st year, while listening to the last two pages of a book her daughter was reading to her at the Carleton Willard Skilled Nursing Facility.

Tennis career

Morrill played singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. In 1930 at the U.S. National Championships, Morrill played in the mixed doubles final, where she and partner Frank Shields lost to Edith Cross and Wilmer Allison.

At the 1932 national indoor championships at Longwood in Brookline, she swept the finals of the three women's events. It was only the second 'grand slam' in women’s indoor tennis history after Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman. Morrill also played at Wimbledon in 1929 in the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles categories. She reached the third round in the singles and doubles events.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles (1 runner-up)

Mixed doubles (1 runner-up)