ANNE WHITFIELD KENNY:  PLAYING FOR THE FUN OF IT
5/17/06
by Sara James

Proving how small a world is the tennis world in Richmond, Anne Whitfield Kenny's husband's last-room-mate-before-her was Lou Einwick.  Lou is the long-time Executive Director of the RTA. Simply having a tie-in to the bigwigs doesn't guarantee you'll get a story about yourself on this website.   But winning the City Open Singles Title definitely gives you an edge.

Anne was swimming with the Midgets at age 11 when she was spotted by Jimmy Mitchell, the CCV pro.  He put a racquet in her hand, and not long after that she won the city tournament in the junior girls' division.  Her parents weren't too excited about her new hobby.

"They didn't want me to become just a tennis player.  So I didn't go to many out of the area tournaments, but I went to as many as I could locally."

"Back then you knew everybody who played in the tournament," said Anne.  She attended St. Catherine's through lower to the upper school, playing for the tennis team as soon as she was able.  The first time Anne played for the city open singles title,  she won the first set, then got sick and had to default.  

The following year, home from the end of her junior year at Smith College, her strong forehand brought home the championship trophy.  It was hot-- very hot-- and Anne drank a coke during the match.  "Only people with weak constitutions considered drinking water back then," she said.

Afterwards, she went to Ollie's,  the snack bar at CCV, and bought a limeade.  "Or, maybe a cherry coke," she remembers.  "Ollie's was the big hangout at the time, and all the tennis players were there."

I asked her if she had any stories from 'back when'.  "Oh, not that I can tell," she replied, with a grin.  "I still know a lot of those people."

"This was before tennis really took off.  Everybody knew everything about everybody...There were a fair number of people coming up though, and so you had the small undercurrents of pressure, of people you didn't want to have to play."

One of them was Sarah Townsend, who would eventually win four singles titles from 1962-1968, and be a finalist in four more.  "She was a beautiful tennis player, with incredible strength.  Sarah hit the ball much harder than anyone else.  She was taller and a fair amount younger than I was, thank goodness, so I didn't have to play her often."

Anne married Jack Kenny, whom she met at a party. At the time, he wasn't a big tennis player.  "He worked. I played," said Anne.  As a member of the Anderson Cup team, Anne played with former city champions Amanda Tevepaugh and Joyce Sydnor.

"We were just having a good time," she recalled.  "This was just as tennis was really taking off.  All the clubs were taking it up to beat the band....although many of the newer players were taking it far more seriously than we did."

Suburban tennis was becoming popular, and Anne took turns being captain of the CCV team.  "One time, during our first season, I misinterpreted the schedule.  I thought the first match was a home match.

"When nobody from the other team showed up, I called the other captain, and told her we were on our way.  We all jumped in our cars - it couldn't have been more than 10 minutes past starting time  - and when we got there, the other captain told us we would have to default.

"Well, we all took tennis seriously, but not THAT serious," she emphasized.  "The other captain said we could play a fun match at that point, but our response?  No, thanks."

Anne's husband, Jack Kenny, caught the tennis bug and eventually became the President of the RTA in the 60s.  The family included two children, now grown, who played tennis at St. Catherine's.  

"They were good players in spite of my coaching," said Anne. "They always brought a thermos of water, and a couple of extra racquets....they studied their opponents and always arrived early for the match.

"Those things really never occurred to me," she said, laughing.