Zaharias won a tournament named after her, the Babe Zaharias Open of her hometown of Beaumont, Texas. Charles McGrath of The New York Times wrote of Zaharias, "Except perhaps for Arnold Palmer, no golfer has ever been more beloved by the gallery." While Zaharias missed the cut in the 1938 PGA Tour event, later, as she became more experienced, she made the cut in every PGA Tour event she entered. Cayleff wrote, "As Didrikson's marriage grew increasingly troubled, she spent more time with Dodd. The women toured together on the golf circuit, and eventually Dodd moved in with Zaharias and Didrikson for the last six years of Didrikson's life." They never used the word "Lesbian" to describe their relationship, but there is little doubt that their relationship was both sexual and romantic and Zaharias has been described as the first lesbian gold medallist in Olympic athletics. Zaharias has a museum dedicated to her in Beaumont, Texas the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum. A Tampa, Florida golf course that she and her husband owned, the Babe Zaharias Golf Course, was given landmark status. In 1976, Zaharias was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.In 1981, the U.S. Postal Service issued an 18 cent stamp commemorating Zaharias. In 1974, the City of Tampa took over the golf course, renovated it, and reopened it, naming it the Babe Zaharias Golf Course. In Jenifer Levin's 1993 novel The Sea of Light, main character Mildred "Babe" Delgado is named after Zaharias by her mother Barbara, who considered Zaharias to be "My only hero". In June 2011, Little, Brown published a major biography of Zaharias, Wonder Girl, by author Don Van Natta Jr. Family Guy has made numerous references to Babe Zaharias being one of the greatest Americans to have lived.
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