Lucy Hayes Herron

Herron was born in 1877 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of John Williamson Herron, a lawyer, and Harriet Anne Collins Herron. Her older sister, Helen Herron Taft, was the wife of President William Howard Taft and first lady of the United States.^[1] Lucy was baptized in the White House and named for Lucy Webb Hayes, wife of her father’s close friend President Rutherford B. Hayes.^[2][3] Some sources give her birth date as 1878 or 1879 (including her tombstone), but she was "born shortly after the election of Mr. Hayes" and named for the new first lady, which places her birth and baptism in 1877.^[4]

Her maternal grandfather Ela Collins was a Congressman in the 1820s, as was an uncle, William Collins. Another uncle, Isaac Clinton Collins, was an Ohio state legislator and a judge.

Herron was a serious amateur golfer and a member of the Cincinnati Golf Club. Because she was from Ohio, she was considered a "Western" golfer: "Miss Herron, who is strong on the putting green, is another one of the formidable golfers, who, of both sexes, the West is sending out to test Eastern skill to its utmost," commented one publication at the time.^[5] Her swing was described as "beautiful" "quick, machine-like" by colleagues.^[6] In 1897, she finished third in the U.S. Women's Amateur.^[7] In 1899, she won the Women's Golf Association Trophy in Philadelphia.^[8] She reached the finals of the 1901 U.S. Women's Amateur, held at Baltusrol Golf Club, where Genevieve Hecker defeated her.^[9][10][11] The golfer Frances C. Griscom listed her among the top women golfers in the United States.^[12]