November 2 – Happy Birthday, Marion Jones Farquhar

Posted on November 2, 2015

To be famous enough for something like Wikipedia, you have to be really good at one thing.

And to be really good at one thing, you need to work hard at that thing.

Marion Jones, born on this date in 1879, worked hard enough at tennis that she won women's singles titles in two U.S. Tennis Championships and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. 

She was even the first American woman to win an Olympic “distinction” – there were no medals at that point in Olympic history.



These photos showed the clothing women
wore while playing tennis in the late 1800s and
the "Turn of the Century."

Hard to imagine, isn't it?


The thing I found interesting is that, after Jones married Robert D. Farquhar and raised three children, she became a coach. But she didn't become a tennis coach, which is totally what I would've expected! Instead, she became a voice coach. She was living in New York City, and she became well known as a violinist as well as a voice coach, and she translated opera librettos, and she even headed the New York Chamber Opera for a while.

Isn't that cool? Marion Jones Farquhar became well known in two completely unrelated fields!


Strive for balance...

Most of us will never make it to Wikipedia; we will never be that level of “well-known” in even one field, let alone two. 

But we can all try to maintain a balance in our lives. We can all make or enjoy music, AND participate in some sort of performing or visual art, AND continue to learn new things, AND play a sport or pursue some other form of exercise.

  • There are lots of articles on balance – like this one.


Also on this date:


All Souls' Day




























Mathematician George Boole's birthday

















Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:



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