Although primarily recognized for a stellar golf career that included representing Nova Scotia eight times at the Canadian championships, winning 25 Bridgewater club titles and the provincial ladies crown in 1960, there was seemingly not a sport at which Miriam Penney didn’t excel.
By 15, the Pleasantville resident was already the pitcher on the girls softball team that never lost a game. She batted 1.000 for an entire season and was recruited for the men’s team the following year.
Penney also was recruited to play hockey with the boys after scoring 21 of her team’s 22 goals one season, assisting on the other.
In addition, she won the high school badminton title and earned three gold medals in throwing events at the Maritime championships. At age 17 in 1939, Penney won a gold medal at the Canadian track and field championships in Hamilton, Ontario.
She discovered golf at age 25 and after just six weeks won the Novice division in the Nova Scotia ladies championship.
Penney eventually took up curling at age 40 and wound up representing Bridgewater at numerous provincials, reaching the women’s finals four times.
At the same time Penney was enjoying her long run of success as a golfer in Bridgewater, one of her Lunenburg contemporaries dominated the sport in Nova Scotia during the 1950s and early 1960s.
LUNENBURG COUNTY SPORT HERITAGE SOCIETY 