Gertrude "Gussie" Moran, 89, who shocked the modest mid-century tennis world when she took the court at Wimbledon wearing a short skirt and ruffled underwear, died Wednesday night in Los Angeles of colon cancer, said Jack Neworth, a tennis writer who befriended Ms. Moran in her final year.
As a 25-year-old seventh seed at Wimbledon in 1949, Ms. Moran made jaws drop and flashbulbs pop at the usually staid All-England Club in London when she showed up for her first match minus the knee-length skirt considered proper for women at the time.
She lost the match, but her striking fashion statement appeared on magazine covers around the world, and the British press dubbed her "Gorgeous Gussie."
