written by Olivia Pennybaker

Famous Kentuckian amateur golfer Marion Miley was born in Philadelphia in 1914. Growing up, she moved around with her family for her father’s job as a golf professional. When she was twelve, Miley took up the game of golf for herself. In 1930 her family moved to Lexington, Kentucky as her father got a job at Lexington Country Club. In 1932 Miley decided to leave school at Florida State College for Women in order to pursue a career playing golf. She was taught under her father, Fred Miley, and utilized Lexington Country Club as her home club, playing in amateur tournaments all over the United States.

Marion Miley won the 1931 Kentucky Women’s Amateur, which she successfully defended in many years to follow. She participated in the 1933 U.S. Women’s Amateur and won the 1935 Mexican Amateur Championship. In the 1938 U.S. Women’s Amateur, she made it to the semifinals but lost to Patty Berg. In 1938 she also got to play on the Curtis Cup team. From 1931 to 1940 Miley played in forty-one major golf tournaments and won twenty-two of them. 

On September 28, 1941 Marion Miley was murdered in her apartment at Lexington Country Club after a badly botched robbery. Miley was on her way to become the best women’s amateur in the country. Lexington Country Club created the Marion Miley Memorial Tournament in honor of her legacy. It is a women’s golf event hosted each year at the club. In 2017 Miley was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. Beverly Bell also wrote a book on Miley called The Murder of Marion Miley. Miley was a talented and dedicate golfer, not yet reaching her full potential when she was unfortunately murdered at age twenty-seven.