Carole Caldwell Graebner passed away at the age of sixty five following a brief but courageous battle with cancer on November 19, 2008. Carole Caldwell Graebner served as a chair of the United States Tennis Association's Fed Cup Committee. Graebner was born on June 24 in 1943 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Santa Monica in California. She was well known and regarded as a fixture in the American Tennis community and has been such for many years. When she was playing, she was ranked No. 1. in the country in women's doubles tennis, and she teamed with Nancy Richey in the 60s to take the women's doubles championships in 1965 in the United States Championships, which are now known as the U.S. Open. She also went on to take the same championship in the 1966 Australian Championships which is now the Australian Open.

She also managed to take doubles titles in 1965 and 1966 in the U.S. Clay Court Championships, and was a finalist in singles in the US championships in 1964. She took a Gold medal at the Pan American Games in 1963 and took two singles titles at the Pacific Southwest Championships. Between 1961 and 1965 and then again in 1967 she was ranked in the top 10 in the United States.

Carole Caldwell Graebner was a part of a stellar group of young women players that came from California in the latter half of the 1950s to represent the United States in tennis tournaments all over the world. She was part of an undefeated Junior Cup team including a number of top notch players including Karen Hantze, Barbara Browning Rohland, Billie Jean King, Pam Davis Elliot and Cathy Chabot Willette as well. She also went on to join the U.S. Federation Cup team in '63, and played college tennis with Billie Jean King at California State University in Los Angeles. Even long after her playing career had ended, Carole Caldwell Graebner continued to remain very active in the American tennis community, serving as a chair of the Fed Cup Committee for the United States Tennis Association (USTA), and as a vice chair of the Wightman Cup Committee, of which she used to be a team member. In 1989 she received a USTA Service Bowl Award, and in 1991 she won the Sarah Palfrey Danzig Award. She also did some work as vice president of Tennis Week, a magazine, and did television and radio commentary for the sport.

Carole Caldwell Graebner leaves behind a daughter and son, as well as four grandchildren, a son in law and a daughter in law. According to Billie Jean King, they met early and were life long friends. Carole Caldwell Graebner is known for being a driving force behind the Fed Cup, which is an international competition for women's tennis teams.

Photo Credits: (AP/ File 1965)

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