Friday, January 13, 2012

I Felt A Little Teardrop


vocal by Betty Dodd accompanied by Babe Zaharias on the harmonica


I Felt A Little Teardrop

w & m Frank "Pee Wee" King, Redd Stewart & Neal Burris.

Mercury

Recorded in Nashville in 1953

Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who achieved outstanding success in golf, basketball, and track and field.

Mildred Ella Didrikson was the sixth of seven children born in the coastal oil city of Port Arthur in southeastern Texas. Her mother, Hannah, and her father, Ole, were immigrants from Norway.

Already famous as Babe Didrikson, she married the "Crying Greek from Cripple Creek," (George Zaharias), a professional wrestler, in St. Louis, Missouri, on December 23, 1938. Thereafter, she was largely known as Babe Didrikson Zaharias or Babe Zaharias.

Betty Dodd, her closest female friend (i.e. her lover) was a promising golf protegee from San Antonio who was twenty years Babe’s junior.

The Babe Zaharias article in Wikipedia has not a word about Betty Dodd.



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11 comments:

  1. The song is...ok. The back story is *great* - thanks Bob - but also very sad.

    I remember reading about Babe Z's athletic prowess in Sunday school in the early 70s (why, I have no idea) - I wonder if my 2 favorite "spinster" Sunday school teachers were clued in to other aspects of Babe's life?

    I hope someone updates Wiki.

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  2. Interesting story Holly, maybe their was something about your spinster school teachers you didn't know :) I'd never heard of Babe before this. There's a biography of her out there and a good review of that book here with a lot more information on Babe. http://www.mariahburtonnelson.com/Articles/BabeDidriksonZaharias.html

    Here's a bit more about Dodd taken from that review.

    "Betty Dodd, a golfer twenty years Babe’s junior, became “the partner Babe had longed for,” says Cayleff. Dodd roomed with Babe on the circuit of the fledgling Ladies Pro Golf Association (which Babe co-founded), lived with George and Babe for the last six years of Babe’s life, and moved into the hospital to nurse Babe as she died of colon cancer. Before her own death in 1993, Dodd told Cayleff, “I had such admiration for this fabulous person. I loved her. I would have done anything for her.”

    George was openly jealous of the women’s relationship, Dodd reported, and “we always had a lot more fun when he wasn’t around.” Babe asked George for a divorce, but “he got meaner than a snake.” Ultimately Babe stayed because “being married to George was part of her public image.”

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  3. There was definitely something about those teachers I didn't know - I figured it quite a bit later in life, naive me! That said, those fine women were also my girl scout troop leaders, and wonderful, fun, caring role models. I wouldn't know how to build a fire. pitch a tent, read the stars, or paddle a canoe without their dedication. I'm sorry they had to hide their relationship. Change comes too slowly for some.

    Back to topic at hand - I've actually been reading a lot about Babe since this post - wow, my sunday school reading was very airbrushed, to put it mildly....

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  4. If possible please reup

    I Felt A Little Teardrop

    Thank you in advance

    Peter

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much. It was very kind of you.

      Peter

      Delete
  5. Thanks again for "I Felt A Little Teardrop", but it isn't complete.
    The song stops playing before it should. Can you fix that problem for me, please.
    All the best
    Peter


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  6. I do not see how to listen to it. I click what appears to be a link and nothing happens

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