By Michael Jamieson
Consider, if you will, the mystery of Mrs. Frank Sheedy, a two-time San Francisco City golf champion of the 1920’s. Having spent 30 years documenting the incredible true-life story of one of her contemporaries, Mrs. Helen F. Lengfeld, I became intrigued with Mrs. Sheedy’s life story even as I researched Mrs. Lengfeld’s biography. Helen’s case file became packed with 75 personal photographs, golf trophies dating from 1918 from The Beresford CC (now known as The Peninsula Golf and Country Club), medals, personal notes on her life, copies of the magazine she published for 20 years and her 45-year service to the Veterans Administration.
If Mrs. Lengfeld was like a Castroville artichoke, with layer after layer to peel back with still more to discover, who was Mrs. Frank Sheedy, her frequent “friendly rival” in the 1920’s? She dropped from view around 1929. Among Helen Lengfeld’s private papers was a sensational 8 X 10 glossy photograph of a “younger” Helen Lengfeld pulling a fellow woman golfer up a rock wall. Who was the other woman? What was the date? Where was it taken? Any California golfer will recognize the seawall on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links. I spotted a photo of Helen in the same clothes outfit, including striped socks, in the 1926 Green Book of Golf, so the photo was likely taken in 1925. As to the identity of the woman in the photo with Helen, I looked at 50 or more photos of women golfers from that era, mostly from newspapers. Women of the day loved big hats, which slowed the search, but eventually it was clear this was Mrs. Frank Sheedy. Unfolding the mystery began.
Helen Smith married Francis (Frank) Sheedy in 1917. Her star began to rise after she took up golf in 1922, and she subsequently won two S.F. City Championships. The staged picture with Helen Lengfeld in 1925 was undoubtedly taken during the Del Monte Cup matches in Pebble Beach which both attended. Mrs. Sheedy divorced in 1926, claiming her husband had refused to “take her out” or take part in her social life for three years. This traced directly back to the attractive Helen Sheedy bursting onto the women’s golf scene, playing out of Lincoln Park, and her picture often gracing the sports page. But what happened next? As I was mulling this, I received a call from Helen Lengfeld’s granddaughter, Dede Meyers. Could I locate a newspaper article she had seen once about Helen’s house burning down during a golf match? The article wasn’t hard to find, it appeared as a novelty item in many papers, but the surprising part was that it was about the 1925 Beresford CC Women’s Invitational and her victory in the finals over ...Mrs.
Frank Sheedy. In the article, Lengfeld is quoted as saying, “Ha Ha, that’s only a house but I beat Mrs. Sheedy.” Clearly, Helen Lengfeld had some game.
I returned to Helen Lengfeld’s personal photo album of the 1925 Beresford Invitational done by AD Mills and there it was, a photo of Mrs. Lengfeld and Mrs. Sheedy shaking hands after the final match. I had seen it a dozen times over 25 years and never knew the relevance. Helen had just found out her house was on fire, and seeing a photo of the moment was very consequential. And what of Mrs. Sheedy? Her tournament appearances after that seemed to be less frequent, although she had been both medalist and runner-up at Del Monte in 1928. Then, the unexpected “all caps” newspaper headline from the San Francisco Examiner April 17,1929: MRS. HELEN SHEEDY PLUNGES TO DEATH
It was true. The champion golfer, just 30 years old and admired by many, had somehow gone out the 3rd-floor window of the Roosevelt Hotel in San Francisco. It was reported that Mrs. Sheedy had recently had an appendectomy which prevented her from playing in the California Women’s Amateur Championship. She and her boyfriend/fiancé, Robert (Roy) Phillips, had quarreled that afternoon because, in his words, “she would not give up her wine tonic.” She tossed him out of the room, locked the door, and several hours later, clad in silk pajamas, she either leaned out too far to wave to him as he drove back up to the hotel or decided she could not overcome her depression.
But is that the end of the story? The next day, The San Francisco Chronicle broke the story that the same ex-caddy, roofing contractor, Robert Phillips was being investigated for his part in a sordid San Francisco divorce scandal. He was accused of taking money from Sherwood Allen to place his wife, Mrs. Pauline Allen in a compromising position and improve Sherwood’s divorce settlement. Not surprisingly, Sherwood claimed he was being set up by his wife, Pauline. Did Helen Smith Sheedy find out about her boyfriend’s double life?
But wait, there’s more. One of only two witnesses to Helen Sheedy’s plunge was Dr. Hobson (DDS), who claimed she appeared to be held out the window for a minute before her fall. A man he identified as looking like her first husband, Frank Sheedy was first on the scene, telling her she would be okay.
When she wasn’t, he disappeared into the crowd. In any event, ex-husband Frank Sheedy claimed the body and paid for her funeral.
In the end, the San Francisco coroner’s inquest had the final say. It was ruled that Mrs. Sheedy had died accidentally as she leaned out of the hotel window. A contributing factor was likely the wine tonic. Exempt from prohibition rules, wine tonics like the popular California Padres contained over 20% alcohol and could be purchased without a prescription at any drugstore. Just four months later, the San Francisco Examiner, inspired by her death, did a 10-part story about the dangers of wine tonics, drawing national attention to the problem. This was perhaps the only good thing that came of it.
Any death is a tragedy, and Helen Smith Sheedy’s death is even more so. She was young, attractive and possessed a skill for golf that should have only gotten better. She left behind friends, adoring fans, parents and a sister who all cared for her well-being. Her “friendly rival” Helen Lengfeld spent 50 more years giving back to golf and the Veterans Administration. Nobody knows what impact Helen Smith Sheedy could have had if her life hadn’t been cut so short, so cruelly.
