Age is just a number for longtime Greenwood resident Rose Bowman.
Bowman, who will celebrate her 80th birthday on Tuesday, hasn’t let surgeries, hip replacements or arthritis keep her off the tennis court. Although she stopped entering competitive tournaments a few years ago due to eye surgery for cataracts, Bowman has remained active playing twice a week with friends at the Greenwood Country Club on top of her early-morning water aerobics exercises to stay healthy.
“I just love being outside,” said Bowman, a native of Duck Hill. “But I’m not as competitive anymore.”
Surrounded by dozens of trophies laid out on her kitchen counter, it’s clear that Bowman had a serious competitive streak in the past. She estimates about 25 or 30 of the awards were won with her daughter, Cindy, who introduced her to tennis in the first place.
Bowman picked up tennis in her 30s after Cindy returned from a weeklong camp at the country club with a new enthusiasm about that sport. So the two started playing together, and soon enough, they tried their hand at a tournament.
“Someone said, ‘Y’all ought to play in a tournament in Grenada,’” Bowman recalled. “They said, ‘What’s your seed?’ We didn’t know what a seed was because we had never played in a tournament. And we won it.”
It was the first of many fond memories for the duo on the court.
Cindy went to work on her game as a member of Pillow Academy’s tennis team, and Bowman followed suit, determined to get good enough to compete with her friends on the Claiborne Avenue public courts and at the country club.
“I just love the game,” Bowman said as she imitated her swing. “I can lob all day.”
She may have gotten a later start on the sport than most, but it just made winning even more rewarding.
“Any time I won a tournament, it was a joy because I was older than most people,” she said.
“I thought I was good, but I realized it was her strength and everything,” Bowman said of Cindy. “She was serving the ball so hard they could barely hit it back across the net, or it’d come to me and I’d hit it and it’d dribble across the net. I wasn’t nearly as good as I thought I was. But it’s been fun. I love it.”
Although Bowman has seen a lot of change in more than 50 years living in Greenwood, she wouldn’t trade its small-town culture for the world.
“It’s not like it was when I moved here,” Bowman said. “When I moved here, every store in downtown Greenwood was filled, all the way from Crystal Grill across the street and everywhere. It is just sad.
“But I love having everybody know you at the places you frequent,” she added. “It’s just fun to live in a small town.”
- Contact Riley Overend at 662-581-7237 or roverend@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow @OverendOut on Twitter.
