Loma Smith (1913-2006) was a champion on the badminton court, on the golf course,
and in life.
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Stan Bischof.
Loma Smith was born in 1913 to her father Fred, a construction worker, and her mother Daisy. She grew up in Pasadena playing sports in the Pasadena Recreation Department programs. She had an exceptional athletic ability, and had many outstanding achievements in four sports: table tennis, tennis, badminton, and golf. Loma won the California State Table Tennis Championship at age 15 in 1928. In 1929, she was runner-up to Alice Marble in the finals of the U.S. Junior Hardcourt Championships in Fullerton, CA. But during the tournament she got a severe case of sun stroke, collapsed at the end of a match, and was unconscious for two weeks. That case led to anemia, and she spent over a year in recovery, and was no longer allowed to play tennis outdoors in the sun.
Ahead of her time in many ways, especially in her desire to compete in sports, Loma played sports with boys, and her father encouraged her to take sports seriously. That she did because she possessed many talents. She discovered badminton, and was delighted to find that it was a competitive sport played indoors. In 1940, Loma met Hulet Pieper Smith on the tennis court in Pasadena. He was a pole vaulter in college and a Princeton grad. He was a member of a notable lumber family from Minnesota, an investment banker with two brothers, and a daughter from a first marriage. He was a golfer, and when Loma married him in 1941, she took up golf, and he took up badminton!
Hulet Smith and Lewis Rulison won the U.S. Senior Men’s Doubles Championship in 1947, and Loma and Wynn Rogers won the Mixed Doubles title at the CA state level, going on to win the title together for five consecutive years. They went on to win three U.S. MX titles in 1949, 1950, and 1951. In 1951, Loma teamed with Dottie Hann to win the U.S. WD title. She was inducted into the U.S. Helms Hall of Fame in 1966.
From 1948 to 1962, the Smiths ran a Junior badminton program for the Pasadena Recreation Department at various junior highs during the school year. They would annually hold a junior high tournament in April, and the Southern CA Junior Championships in May each year. By 1950, Southern CA was sending a large number of strong contenders to the Junior Nationals.
Loma improved her golf game through instruction and play. In 1956, she won the Pasadena City Women’s Golf Championship, and in 1957 she won the first Southern CA Women’s Championship. By 1961 she held the women’s course record at three Southland courses, shooting in the mid-1970’s from a scratch to a 6 handicap.
Loma and Hulet lived for years in Arcadia, but in 1962 when Hulet retired, they moved to a home on the first fairway of Cypress Point Golf Club in Pebble Beach. Called “Huloma,” the home had spectacular views of 17-Mile Drive, Fan Shell Beach, and Bird Rock. Loma fed the deer, raccoons, and birds, was an avid gardener, and played 18 holes of golf a day. The couple became members of the Monterey Peninsula Country Club whose golf championship Loma won for eight years. In 1964 and 1965, Loma won the USGA Senior Women’s golf title, and was runner-up in 1967 and 1968. She was the first woman ever to win back-to-back USGA Senior Women’s titles. Loma was inducted into the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Hall of Fame, and the club tournament was named after her in 1998.
When Hulet died in 1980, Loma continued to play golf. She was a generous philanthropist, giving to over 50 charities and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She was said to have a larger than life quality with her wavy blond hair and cornflower blue eyes. She sparkled with good health and was often smiling. She was a fine sportswoman and competitor who touched many, many, lives. Loma died in 2006 at age 92.
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