95-year-old Pickleball Player Dominates the Courts: ‘I Keep moving’

From Kansas comes the story of a timeless American: a great-great-grandmother who sings, dances, and plays pickleball twice a week.

Lois White puts the elder in ‘elderly,’ and has lived a life of play, sport, love, and family to be celebrated from one corner of the country to the next.

Pickleball, a kind of padel game, but played on a hard indoor court with a hollow, slower ball, and is rapidly gaining popularity across America as a way to stay active for anyone of any age.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, White takes to the pickleball court at New Century Fieldhouse, Gardener, Kansas. She holds her own against whippersnappers in their 50s and 60s.

“On top of this, I play cards every week,” White told KCTV News 5. “I picked up square dancing. Then, I decided I want to play the Mandolin. So, I bought me some books and I do play and sing. I belong to the Pickers and Fiddlers.”

 Indeed, pickleball is just the most recent example of the richness of White’s life.

Born before an airplane had ever flown over Kansas, she married a soldier at age 17 and had 6 kids.

“We always did what the kids wanted to do. I’ve played basketball, football, you name it,” White said. “My husband and I had a softball team with our daughters for years.”

Many of these offspring tell her she needs to take it easy, but she interjects: “I know one thing, you need to keep moving.”