Mary Laver, wife of tennis great Rod Laver, dies
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS November 19, 2012 6:58PM
Updated: December 21, 2012 6:26AM
SAN DIEGO — Mary Laver, a DeKalb native and wife of tennis great Rod Laver, died last week after a long illness. She was 84.
Rod Laver said Tuesday that Mary Laver died Nov. 12 at their home in Carlsbad in northern San Diego County.
They were married for 46 years and had one son, Rick, who was born three weeks after Laver won the Grand Slam in 1969. The Australian-born Laver, 74, is the only person to have won the Grand Slam twice, the first coming in 1962.
“We had a wonderful life together,” Laver said. “We did a lot of traveling, a lot of tennis tournaments, tennis events.”
The family is planning a private memorial service.
Mary Bensen was born in DeKalb on Jan. 23, 1928. Laver said they met at the Jack Kramer Club in the Los Angeles area and were married on June 20, 1966, in San Rafael, Calif.
She had three children from a previous marriage.
AP
