Liza Constable

Things have been crazy around here, and here’s the reason why. I have been doing my regular stuff: music, raising kids as well as I can, being a good partner to Nat. And preparing for my mother’s memorial service. My brother’s service was last month, on a lovely dusky evening, on his beloved island. I sang two songs for him; “who’ll sing for me” and “crossing the bar”. it had to be the hardest performance of my life.

Working on a song for Mom’s service, which I am determined to do, already knowing how hard it is to keep it together. A closed emotional throat can’t be sung through! I’m working on a poem set to music by Peter Amidon, “Oh the Comfort”. Mom loved my music, but she never heard this one. I think she’d like it.

Thanks for indulging me. I wanted to let people know why I haven’t been updating. I am fervently practicing my yoga to keep an even keel. Things are mostly ok. I drop out from time to time, and I know that I shouldn’t have to hold it together completely. So I let myself drop. and then come back. My family is understanding and patient.

Here’s the piece on her in the NYT. I figure as a family member I can lift it. Mom was extremely proud of her accomplishments, fueled by a genuine love and passion that I admired.

By DOUGLAS MARTIN of the New York Times

September 18, 2008

Betty Constable, who used a powerful left-handed stroke to become the dominant woman squash player of the 1950s and went on to post a formidable record as Princeton’s first women’s squash coach, died on Sept. 9 in Skillman, N.J. She was 83.

The death was confirmed by her daughter Kacey Constable Nugent.

When the United States Squash Hall of Fame inducted Mrs. Constable in 2000, it called her a “central force behind the growth of women’s squash in the United States.”

Mrs. Constable was part of squash royalty. Her mother, Margaret Allen Howe, who, in the custom of the day, played as Mrs. William Francis Howe, won the national title in 1929, 1932 and 1934.

Mrs. Constable’s twin sister, Peggy Howe White, won the national title in 1952 and 1953 and lost three times in the finals.

Mrs. Constable won the national title in 1950, 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959. She won three veterans’ singles titles for women over 40 and three veterans’ doubles titles.

The Howe Cup, a prestigious prize in American women’s squash, is named for the family. It began as an intercity competition of teams among New York, Philadelphia and Boston and expanded to include the rest of the United States and Canada.

After Princeton University admitted women as students, it included squash as one of six varsity sports for women that it introduced in the 1971-72 academic year, and appointed Mrs. Constable coach. Her teams had a record of 117-15 over all, and 73-11 in the Ivy League. Ten of her teams were undefeated.

Elizabeth Howe was born 20 minutes before Peggy in Natick, Mass., on Nov. 8, 1924. She graduated from the Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill, Mass. She worked as a nurse’s aide with the Red Cross during World War II rather than attending college. On May 20, 1950, she married Dr. William Pepper Constable Jr., who had been captain of Princeton’s 1935 football team.

Mrs. Constable learned to play squash in her 20s at the New Haven Lawn Club.

The twins were alike in each marrying a doctor but different in their style of play: Mrs. White was right-handed and Mrs. Constable was more aggressive on the court.

“She’s like a bulldog,” Mrs. White said in an interview with Time magazine in 1959. “She drives under an opponent’s racket of swings without regard for anything but hitting the ball. I’m daintier. I play a softer game.”

Women’s squash in the 1950s was still very much an upper-class sport, and the regular competitions between the best players of the United States and England were treated as glamorous events in the London papers. The Evening Standard reported that American team members brought an average of 15 dresses, including 6 ball gowns, and each had 10 pieces of luggage. Teas and Champagne dinners with royalty were de rigueur.

The English women almost always won handily.

Mrs. White died in 1997, and Dr. Constable in 1986. W. Howe Constable, the Constables’ son, died this August.

Mrs. Constable is survived by her daughters Margo Constable of Idledale, Colo.; Ms. Constable Nugent of Old Saybrook, Conn.; and Liza Constable of Nelson, N.H.; her stepson, William Pepper Constable III of London; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

In the Time interview, Mrs. White said she and her sister “just don’t like each other on the squash court,” and refused to move aside to give the other a clean shot.

“I won’t get out of her way, and she won’t give me a thing,” Mrs. White said.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 20, 2008
An obituary on Friday about Betty Constable, a star squash player of the 1950s, omitted her husband’s given and middle names and his suffix. He was William Pepper Constable Jr.