Palmer and Gawthrop pictured together during a rain delay at a 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates game. (Getty)
One of America’s most enduring sporting heroes died on the night of September 25. Golfing legend Arnold Palmer passed away in Pittsburgh at the age of 87. He is survived by his wife Kathleen “Kit” Gawthrop and his daughters from his first marriage, Amy and Peggy Palmer. His first wife, Winifred Walzer lost her battle with ovarian cancer in 1999. Palmer would remarry in January 2005 to Gawthrop in a quiet Hawaii ceremony.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Their Wedding Was So Rushed That the Only Attendees Were Members of Palmer’s Staff
Palmer and Gawthrop attend fellow golf champion Jack Nicklaus’ Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda March 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Getty)
In November 2003, it was reported that Palmer had announced his engagement to Gawthrop while in Houston at a Tour Championship event. There he shot “a 73 at 74,” according to Sports Illustrated. The same article that since Palmer began dating Gawthrop, Palmer had been spending more time in Northern California, where she lived. The legend went so far as to open a restaurant in the area.
The Orlando Sentinel reported in January 2005 that Palmer had married in the North Shore of Oahu. The legend told the newspaper, “The timing may be a little spontaneous, but we’ve been looking for a way to get married quietly, and this presented that opportunity.” The guests were not family but rather Palmer’s personal pilot, his caddie and another assistant. Palmer’s son-in-law, Roy Saunders, who is married to Amy Palmer, told the Sentinel, “As far as I know, this was completely impromptu. He wanted to do it without any fuss and on his own terms.”
To sum up, Palmer told the newspaper, “She’s a great lady. I’ve known her for a long time. She’s just very special.” While he told the Associated Press that the couple’s honeymoon “started about a year and a half ago and hopefully it will last for another 10 or 15 years.”
2. Her First Husband Was a Chairman of the Famous Pebble Beach Golf Course
Palmer and Gawthrop met while her father-in-law and first husband were involved in the ownership of the Pebble Beach golf course, reports the Daily American. Palmer played there at the Crosby National Pro-Am. According to his obituary, Gawthrop’s first husband, Al Gawthrop Junior, died in August 2004. He had remarried at the time of his death to a woman named Daphne. Al Gawthrop Junior is described as an “avid golfer” in his tribute. Pebble Beach’s official website says that he was the chairman of the course during the 1970s beginning in 1977.
Gawthrop is a graduate of the University of Colorado in Boulder. Her son, Al Gawthrop III, who goes by the nickname Three, is also a graduate of the school, according to a 2008 profile. Her daughter, Blair Gawthrop Miller, works for an Emmy award winning TV production company. She has another daughter named Lynn Bouck who works as a personal trainer in the Boulder area.
3. Palmer’s Daughters Welcomed Gawthrop to the Family
(Getty)
Hollis Cavner, director of the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship, told the Golf Channel in 2005 about Palmer’s new marriage saying:
What he’d went through with Winnie, and to find Kit, the love he’s got with her now, it really helped him tremendously. …
She’s been super for him and a lot of fun to be around. She was absolutely the perfect thing for Arnold to get him back to being the Arnold we know and love.
While Palmer’s daughter, Amy, explained how Gawthrop was welcomed into the family:
I think they were so totally different, my mother and Kit.
I think the companionship that Kit loves to watch sports, she loves to be at home and I think that’s really what my dad needs. I think he needed someone that enjoys the things he enjoys and I think that everybody embraced Kit in a way that I don’t think, I hope that she never felt that there was this looming presence of my mother.
While Amy Palmer added, “I don’t think it’s hard (living in Winnie’s shadow). I think it’s nice to see (Winnie ever-present in Arnold’s life at Bay Hill), where she lived and the influence she had here.”
Shortly after their engagement, Palmer told Gold Magazine that he and Gawthrop had adopted a Labrador retriever named Mulligan.
4. She Is a Friend of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy
U.S. Justice Anthony Kennedy. (U.S. Supreme Court)
A feature on Palmer for Kingdom Magazine describes how in May 2007, the couple were invited to visit the U.S. Supreme Court. The event was organized by “a friend of Kit Palmer’s,” Justice Anthony Kennedy.
5. Gawthrop Was an Avid Golfer Until a Back Injury Forced Her to Stop
Palmer told Golf Magazine that Gawthrop loved golf but was no longer able to play saying, “Kit used to play, but she’s had a bad back and it’s curtailed her golf. She’s very competitive. We play a lot of dominoes. She usually beats me. And backgammon! She beats me at that too. She’s very lucky.”
In 2006, she told the San Francisco Chronicle about how she handled Palmer’s retirement. Gawthrop said, “We were in Orlando, and I asked him if he wanted to watch the Masters. He said no. ‘Why sit around and watch TV?’ he said. It was kind of hard for him.”