On April 8, 1975, Rose Elder held her husband’s hands tightly as their red limousine eased down Magnolia Lane. They had met years earlier on the driving range at a golf tournament in Washington D.C. He was Lee Elder, the best player on the all-Black United Golf Association tour and she was an amateur with a 12 handicap. She would become his wife, travel companion, business manager and best friend. They didn’t have children unless you count Esa and Birdie, their two poodles, who traveled with them on the tour. Lee had wanted to name one Bogey, but Rose said no. While Lee played on golf courses in the south where African Americans were not welcomed, she walked behind him in the galleries and heard the bigots call him the n-word. She was there when he had to change his shoes in the parking lot at the Pensacola Country Club because Black players weren’t allowed to use the clubhouse.
For almost a year since Lee had earned an invitation to the 1975 Masters after winning the Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Rose had managed her husband’s hectic schedule of appearances and interviews to promote his achievement as the first African American to play in golf’s most prestigious event. Only a year into their marriage, she had helped him save the $10,000 to join the PGA Tour in 1968. And she was the one who stopped him from sharing his earnings with fellow Black players who were having a harder time than him surviving on the meager purses on the Black golf’s chitlin circuits. Lee liked to say that he went to the racetrack and Rose ran their business. Rose made sure that when her husband told stories about his gambling escapades to make ends meet, or his Army stint in the '50s that he didn’t add new details from the last time he told them.
