Active Golfer Still Advising at Military Retirement Community

Air Force Village Resident Julie Meek Still Dishing Out Advice 40 Years Later

SAN ANTONIO, Texas: She'll give swing tips to just about anyone willing to listen, from airmen serving at Lackland Air Force Base to three-year-olds hitting their first ball to touring LPGA players. For four decades, Julie Meek, a resident at Air Force Village in San Antonio, Texas, has been teaching the game she learned almost by chance while touring the country as an entertainer.

"I can help anyone who wants to learn," said Meek, who at 86, no longer takes on new clients, but still freely gives advice. "I mostly work with kids on Saturdays and all my lessons are free for them. I get more joy out of the kids."

Those fortunate enough to run into Meek are getting sound golf advice. She spent 40 years as a certified LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) teaching professional. She coached LPGA touring pro Kim Hall, and also worked with former LPGA pro Betty Jean Dobbins. Her daughter Nancy was once recognized with a Golfer of the Year award from Golf Digest magazine. For years she coached at Churchill High School in San Antonio, as well as tutored players at courses throughout the city.

Meek has a stack of photo albums featuring many of the players she's given instructions to, both young to old. As she flips through them, she recalls her first golf lessons, which happened almost by chance in the 1940s.

"I sang with Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, and we toured all over the country," said Meek. "Glen was one of the very best golf players in the entertainment world, so it was a big deal to have him play your course. So every place we went on the bus to play, Glen would be invited to the local country club. And he'd say to the golf pro at the course, 'Give a lesson to my girl while we play.' I had lessons from some of the finest professionals across the country."

Meek's golf game got more serious after she married her husband, Howard, who was serving as an officer in the Air Force. The couple was stationed in Tripoli, Libya, in North Africa. Since Howard was a golfer, Meek took up the game and became the course champion.

Howard, golf and music became three constants in a life that was constantly in motion. Meek's life is one filled with travels, tales and tidbits. She was born in Canada, where she was a track star in her youth. The daughter of an Irish vaudeville performer, she went to Hollywood for an MGM screen test at age 13. She pursued her own performing career in the 1940s, crisscrossing the country to share the stage with the likes of Buddy Rich, Tommy Dorsey, Henny Youngman and Danny Thomas.

Meek jumped into the military lifestyle after meeting Howard in her father's bar. Together they went from North Africa to Germany. Howard served as an engineering officer, test piloting planes after maintenance and repairs for The Thunderbirds, the Air Force's elite performance team. The couple now lives at Air Force Village, a retirement community with two campuses for retired officers from all branches of the military.

"Howard said to me one day, 'You know, we are both in our 80s and one day one of us is going to be alone. I don't know which one of us, but we should start planning so our daughter won't have to take care of us," said Meek.

Not that the move to Air Force Village has slowed the couple down. Even after having a pacemaker put in last year, Meek continues giving golf lessons and sharing music. She plays accordion and piano at the Air Force Village health care center, as well as in local churches and schools. Howard is a fixture in the Air Force Village hobby shop, building working model replicas of airplanes. And regardless if it's on the golf course or around Air Force Village, Meek is always smiling and passing along pieces of advice she picked up during her fascinating life.


"My father once said to me, 'The day that you are born, God has your number. Every day you are on a journey to make acquaintance with the Lord,'" said Meek. "This journey has been a joy for me."


ABOUT AIR FORCE VILLAGE
Founded by the Air Force Officers' Wives' Clubs, Air Force Village is a retirement community with two campuses located in San Antonio for retired officers from all branches of the military. Air Force Village I, off of Ravenswood Drive, and Air Force Village II, off of John D. Ryan Boulevard, offer a full continuum of care, from independent living apartment homes to assisted living, skilled nursing and memory support, if ever needed. Air Force Village is the first military-related retirement community to be accredited by the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission.