The Ruby Bragg Golf Tournament on Jan. 27 celebrates the birth date of the woman who started at 50 and played 50 years.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published March 12, 2004
BEACH PARK - It almost seemed predestined that Ruby Olivia Bragg would have an exceptional life.
One day more than 100 years ago, two women - friends who had grown up in the same house like sisters - married two cousins with the last name Bragg in a double ceremony in Macon, Ga.
One of the couples had a daughter named Ruby Bragg. Six years later, the other couple had a son named Joseph.
In 1925, Joseph's family moved to Tampa. Ruby, then 23 years old, soon followed.
Not long after, she married Joseph Bragg, her 17-year-old third cousin, and became Ruby Bragg Bragg.
"Nobody even knew they were dating until they got married," said Mrs. Bragg's daughter, Carolyn Tucker. "They just went off to a justice of the peace.
"She was unusual, right from the start."
There would be more stories in Mrs. Bragg's life. Mrs. Bragg died March 1, 2004, at age 102 after a full, active life.
Until she was 99, she played golf twice a week at the Palma Ceia Country Club and drove her own cart.
"She loved golf, but she didn't start playing until she was in her 50s," her daughter said.
Mrs. Bragg and her husband lived in Seminole Heights. He worked at his business, Florida Electric Supply, and she stayed home and raised their two children, Carolyn and Joseph Jr.
"She was a Southern belle," her daughter said. "And she raised us to be the same way. She'd never use a bad word. If we used a bad word, darn or anything like that, she'd always say that if we did it again, she'd wash our mouths out with soap. She never did it, but she always said she would."
In 1952, with the kids grown, the Braggs moved to Beach Park. She loved gardening, played bridge with friends and was an active member of First Christian Church in Tampa, where she always sat in the same seat.
Her husband belonged to the Palma Ceia Country Club - a private oasis that he said was closed to women.
One evening a friend invited her to play bingo at the club. Mrs. Bragg was surprised that women were allowed but decided to check it out.
"My father walked in and saw her and said, "What are you doing here,' " her daughter said. "And my mother said, "I'm coming here every week from now on."'
For the next 50 years, Mrs. Bragg was a regular at the club, playing a round of golf every Tuesday and Friday. She became an expert and scored a hole-in-one when she was in her 70s. When she was in her 80s and 90s, she often defeated golfers 30 or 40 years her junior.
When she showed up to play golf on her 95th birthday, club officials surprised her with the Ruby Bragg Golf Tournament, which is still played every Jan. 27.
Joseph Bragg died in 1980. In 1998, at age 96, Mrs. Bragg finally moved out of her Beach Park home and into Grand Court, a retirement community on Bayshore Boulevard. She was popular among the residents and took an active role in the community.
She remained healthy and refused to allow her age to interfere with her life, her daughter said. One day, she went to the doctor because of back pains and X-rays revealed a broken vertebra. Ignoring the doctor's advice, she returned to Grand Court and attended a dance that night. The next day, another X-ray showed that she had broken another vertebra.
"All the men at Grand Court felt guilty because they had asked her to dance," Mrs. Tucker said.
Mrs. Bragg eventually moved to a nursing home but remained in relatively good health and excellent spirits until mid February. Then she stopped eating.
On March 1, her daughter knew it was time for her mother to go. She put on some religious music, propped up her mother in bed and asked whether she could hear the hymns. She nodded and, within a few minutes, died peacefully.
