BEAUMONT, Texas — At a time when when women were still fighting to be allowed to work, vote and more, Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was blazing a trail for female athletes.
She excelled at baseball, basketball, golf, and track setting multiple Olympic records.
"It really gave young girls in this area someone to look up to," said Dana Howard, Education and Tour Coordinator at the Museum of the Gulf Coast.
Born in Port Arthur Texas in 1911 to a family of Norwegian immigrants, her family later moved to Beaumont.
Even with all of her success, "Babe" never would forget her Southeast Texas roots.
"She was one of the first women to play all of the sports professionally and do it well. She was also sort of a beacon for young girls who wanted to be athletes," said Howard.
That all started in her childhood home with baseball.
"She got the nickname Babe playing baseball with some friends. She hit supposedly, according to her, she hit 5 home runs in one game, and her friends also calling her Babe after Babe Ruth." said Howard.
Babe was also a talented singer and seamstress.
"In middle school she won a sewing contest, at the Beaumont State fair Southeast Texas state fair that we have every year," Howard said.
Her Nephew George Grimes says that playing sports was simply a neighborhood activity.
"So they had a little circus. Where they'd get in between the houses and made different gym bars and all that kind of stuff," said Grimes. "There were a lot of hedges in the neighborhood, everybody had hedges. So they went around to the neighbors and asked them if they would all cut their hedges at the same height and then they would run and jump hurdles as they were going."
For "Babe", jumping hedges paid off.
"Whenever she was preparing for national championship she competed against a 22 woman team in a track and field event, and she won as a single person to the 22 person team," said Sadie Atha, Marketing Director at Beaumont CVB.
In 1932 she competed in the Olympics for track and field.
"She set so many records just herself," said Atha.
She set records in both the javelin throw and 80 meter hurdle. After that, she went on to dominate the world in golf.
"She started learning to play golf in 1931 and by 1935 she was already on the professional circuit," Howard said.
This was of course before professional golf had a women's division. "Babe" was competing against, and oftentimes beating, men.
"In 1935 she was the first woman to play in a PGA tournament, and no other women did that again until Annika Sörenstam in 2003. So that was almost 6 decades," said Howard.
She is still the only woman to make the top cut at the PGA.
"And she made the cut twice, so that's a big deal. She's the only woman to have ever made the cut," said Howard.
Zaharias went on to co-found the Ladies Professional Golf Association, so women like her could have their own professional league.
"Babe was the GOAT before anyone ever had that nickname," said Howard.
Her family says she knew that too.
"She was well respected and she was a heck of a competitor. And you know she used to tease a lot that 'Babe's here, who's gonna come in second,' that was one of her big ones," said Grimes.
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias truly was a special athlete, someone who shattered though stigmas and gender barriers with sheer willpower and talent.
You can learn more about Babe Zaharias' impact on women's sports during a tour at the museum of the gulf coast and the Babe Zaharias Museum and Vistor center in Port Arthur.