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. Three of her seven siblings were born in Norway, and the other three were born in Port Arthur. She later changed the spelling of her surname from Didriksen to Didrikson. Didrikson moved to Beaumont when she was four years of age. The family resided at 850 Doucette. She always claimed to have acquired the nickname "Babe" (after Babe Ruth) upon hitting five home runs in a childhood baseball game, but she was called "Baby" as a toddler.

Though best known for her athletic gifts, Didrikson had many talents and was a competitor in even the most domestic of occupations: sewing. An excellent seamstress, she made many of the clothes she wore, including her golfing outfits. She won the sewing championship at the 1931 State Fair of Texas in Dallas. In 1929, Didrikson graduated from Beaumont High School but did not attend college. She was a singer and a harmonica player. She recorded several songs on the Mercury Records label. Her biggest seller was "I Felt a Little Teardrop" with "Detour" on the flip side.

Already famous as Babe Didrikson, she married George Zaharias (1908–1984), a professional wrestler, in St. Louis, Missouri, on December 23, 1938. Thereafter, she was largely known as Babe Zaharias. The couple met while playing golf. George Zaharias, a Greek American, was a native of Pueblo, Colorado. Called the "Crying Greek from Cripple Creek," Zaharias also did some part-time acting. The Zahariases had no children and were rebuffed by authorities when they sought to adopt.

Babe was declared by Bobby Jones to be one of the 10 best golfers of all time, male or female.

The record of Mildred (Babe) Didrikson Zaharias for athletic versatility stands at the top for both men and women.

She was voted the world’s greatest woman athlete of the first half of the 20^th Century in a poll conducted by the Associated Press.

She was six times named Woman Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press, 1931, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, and 1954.  No other athlete in either division, man or woman, made this honor so many times.

As a golfer, both amateur and professional, Babe knew no peer in her sex.  She won every major professional championship at least one time and in the case of most of them, more than one time.

She became the first American to capture the British Women’s Amateur and the first performer to win both the United States Women’s Amateur and the British Women’s Amateur.

She was the first woman to win the Western open three times.  She won this event as an amateur and a professional.

Babe knew little about golf and did not take up the game until after she had gained world fame in track and field and All-American status in basketball.  She also had mastered tennis, played organized baseball and softball and was an expert diver, roller-skater and bowler.

Then, she reached the heights in golf and is known as the player who did more than any other to popularize women’s golf.

Babe is a member of the Ladies Golf Hall of Fame and Helms Athletic Foundations Golf Hall of Fame.

She won 17 amateur tournaments in a row, including the British Amateur, the U.S. Amateur and the All-American.

She was a three-time All-American basketball player – 1930, 1931, and 1932.  In track and field, she either held or tied for the world record in tour events and held the United States – AAU record in four events.

Babe won two gold and one silver medal for the U.S. in the 1932 Olympics.  Establishing Olympic records in two events, and tying for the record in the third.  In one instance she established the world record and in another she tied for the world record.  She was given the second place medal in the event in which she tied – the high jump – in what has been recognized as a miscarriage of justice.  Later, Babe was credited with the Olympic record (tie) as well as the world record.

• All of my life I have always had the urge to do things better than anybody else.

• You can't win them all -- but you can try.

• I am out to beat everybody in sight, and that is just what I'm going to do.

• You have to play by the rules of golf just as you have to live by the rules of life. There's no other way.

• Study the rules so that you won't beat yourself by not knowing something.

• Before I was in my teens, I knew exactly what I wanted to be: I wanted to be the best athlete who ever lived.

• Luck? Sure. But only after long practice and only with the ability to think under pressure.

• The formula for success is simple: practice and concentration then more practice and more concentration.

• The more you practice, the better. But in any case, practice more than you play.

• Practice, which some regard as a chore, should be approached as just about the most pleasant recreation ever devised, besides being a necessary part of golf.

• It's not enough just to swing at the ball. You've got to loosen your girdle and let 'er fly.

• Golf is a game of coordination, rhythm and grace; women have these to a high degree.

• Good golf is easier to play -- and far more pleasant -- than bad golf.

• Before I was ever in my teens, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. My goal was to be the greatest athlete that ever lived.