Well deserved indeed, if Jean was not around, Mary K easily would have tripled
her titles, but, goes to show this gal was a gamer. Congrat's and well earned.
Mary was a fine player, but this is going way too far.
You make it sound like she was getting to the final over and over but failing to win titles because Jean was always there to stop her. I attended numerous WPBA events in the 1980's and 1990's, and this really isn't the case.
Mary's best pool was played in, roughly, 1985-94. Winning titles back then required much more than beating Jean. Other stars of women's pool back when Mary was at her peak included four future BCA Hall of Famers: 1) Belinda Bearden (now Belinda Calhoun), Robin Bell (now Robin Dodson), Loree Jon Jones (now Loree Jon Hasson), and Ewa Mataya (now Ewa Laurance). By the early 1990's, another two future BCA Hall of Famers arrived and made winning titles even tougher: 1) Gerda Hofstatter (now Gerda Gregerson) and 2) Jeanette Lee. Another fine player that had to be reckoned with beginning in the early 1990's was Vivian Villareal, who is, at very least, a borderline BCA Hall of Famer.
All the credit in the world to Mary Kenniston, a likeable woman and a fine player with a rock solid pedigree, but let's not rewrite history. Mary was just a small notch below the superstars of women's pool in her prime.
Nonetheless, congrats to Mary on this well-deserved honor.