Helen Waterhouse Palmer

Helen Waterhouse Palmer had a short but brilliant career in Rhode Island Women’s golf through the 1930s and 1940s. She became the youngest person, man or woman, ever to win a State Amateur title when she captured the RIWGA crown at age 14 in 1932. That began a run of five championships in an eight-year period.

Palmer also had considerable success competing out of state. Among other performances, she defeated the legendary Glenna Collett Vare, 1-up, in the semifinals of the Griswold Cup, a major event for women held at Shennescosset Golf Club in Connecticut.

When she married, Palmer moved to Ohio where she won numerous titles, including the Columbus Country Club Women’s Club Championship 18 times and the Franklin County Women’s Amateur nine times. She was the Secretary Emeritus of the Board of the Ohio Osteopathic Association at the time of her death in 1998 at the age of 80.