Biography

American softball player and bowler who is a member of the halls of fame of both sports.

Wilkinson played softball from 1933 to 1965, helping her team, the Ramblers, to the national title in 1940, 1948, and 1949. She was an All-American nineteen seasons as an amateur softball player. Among her feats, she batted an average of .455 in 1954, .450 in 1955, and .387 on the Ramblers championship runner up year of 1957.

As a professional bowler, she won the Women's International Bowling Queen's Tournament (a bowling triple crown event) in 1962, and the WIBC singles in 1963.

She was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1970, her first year of eligibility. She was inducted into the International Bowling Hall of Fame twenty years later, in 1990.

Ms. Wilkinson occasionally attends high school, college and tournament softball games in Arizona, where she and some of her former teammates are honored frequently. The Arizona Republic newspaper chose her at number eight among Arizona's all time greatest athletes in 1999.