Gertrude Moran | Tennis sensation, 89

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."

Ms. Moran was ranked as high as fourth in the United States, was a doubles finalist at Wimbledon, and reached the singles semifinals at the U.S. Open.

After retiring from tennis, she toured with the USO, and did various stints on radio and television, including a sports talk show for six years in New York.

She returned to live in her childhood home in Santa Monica, but she could not afford to keep it and lost it in 1986. She spent her last years in a tiny, run-down apartment in Hollywood.

She always said she wanted red carpet in her house, loving the glamour it evoked.

Before she returned from the hospital for the last time, Neworth said, friends pitched in and had one installed. She died a week later.