Billy Jean King, Hillary for America Headquarters, Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada, October 11, 2016
Gig received a phone call from the Democrat campaign headquarters in Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada at 6:02 pm Monday October 10, 2016 to invite him to attend a phone bank event that will be attended by Billy Jean King https://twitter.com/BillieJeanKing?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor the next day.
Billy Jean was already in town for an AIDS charity event, hosted by Elton John, that she played tennis for on Monday October 10, 2016 in front of the Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard.
Edited conversation between Gig and Billy Jean King
Billy Jean King: Hi, I’m Billy Jean.
Gig: Gig Schmidt. It’s an honor to meet you. You were my favorite tennis player when I was young. I also played in high school and we were parochial state champions two years in a row.
Billy Jean King: What school?
Gig: A parochial school in New Jersey.
Billy Jean King: Which one?
Gig: Moorestown Friends School
Billy Jean King: I know that school. I lived in New York. (Billy Jean may have meant that she was familiar with the “Friends” school system which was founded by Quakers and common in the Northeast part of the United States. The Quakers are also worldwide and founded higher education (colleges) as well.)
Gig: My sister also played. And she went to Harvard.
Billy Jean King: What is her name?
Gig: (Gig only offered her first name. Gig believes that his sister prefers to be private)
You and Martina Navratilova were my favorites.
(Billy Jean King and Martina Navratilova were Gig’s favorite female tennis players)
During Billy Jean King’s short speech she mentioned that her brother played professional baseball for 12 years which Gig was unaware of. Apparently she is as proud of her siblings and Gig is of his. After her speech, when Gig went to her for a picture, he informally called her “Billy“.