This past Friday, Tarboro native Bea Burnette was honored at Benvenue Country Club as an honorary player due to her mind-blowing achievement: becoming number 1 in the world in the 80 year old women’s division of tennis. Despite her presence in the tennis world, few residents of Rocky Mount and Tarboro know of her international standing.

In pursuance of #1 status, Bea has traveled around the world over the years, winning gold on all four court surfaces. This past October, Bea brought home three Gold Ball Awards and the Doris Hart Cup from the International Tennis Federation’s Super Seniors World Tennis Championships in Umag, Croatia. The winning U.S. team won all of the women’s titles in Croatia, with Bea winning both singles and doubles championships, which gave her the first two gold balls, and the third for being a part of the winning team. But her success doesn’t end there. Bea continued on to win big in Vancouver, WA, and Palm Beach, FL later in the year. As of right now, Bea has a broken toe, so she has had to miss out on a couple of tournaments, but she will hopefully return to the circuit soon.

In her hometown of Sparta, NC, Bea was one of eleven children and grew up on a farm. While attending ECU, which was East Carolina Teaching College at the time, Bea picked up a love for tennis at the age of seventeen. Although she got what is considered to be a late start in the tennis world, Bea made up for this in pure love for the sport and played each day. After transferring to Northwestern University in Chicago, Bea did just about everything: modeling, acting, and even serving as a spokesperson for Mercedes Benz and Bayer Aspirin. Throughout the many changes in her life, her passion for tennis remained. One of the many mantras that Bea repeats is “If you can’t beat them, outlive them”, which is very fitting during this chapter of her life. Rock on, Bea!