Career
She is the only person to have represented the United States of America at the highest level of international competition in all three sports. She was a runner-up in the All England Singles in 1957, 1958 and 1960, and shared the Doubles title in 1958. Along with Mississippi Varner they form a kind of "Great Triumvirate" of American Women"s Badminton.
After helping to secure victory in the second of these triennial events she retired from badminton competition.
She was inducted into the United States. Badminton Hall of Fame (now called the Walk of Fame) in 1965 and the World Badminton Hall of Fame in 1999. Before her badminton career ended, Ms Varner had already started to make her mark in squash by reaching the singles final of the United States. championships in 1959.
She represented the United States of America against Great Britain in the Wolfe-Noel Cup matches (1959, 1963), and Philadelphia for five straight years in the Howe Cup. In 2000 she was inducted into the United States Squash Rackets Association Hall of Fame.
Mississippi Varner"s earliest racket sport triumphs came in tennis with victories in National Junior Girls Doubles (1944 and 1945) and in numerous Texas state and regional events.
She eventually played the circuit of national and international tournaments which, in this amateur-only era, were generally held in the six-month span alternating with that of most badminton and squash tournaments. Though she never reached the relative heights in tennis that she did in badminton and squash, she was a strong enough player to reach the final of Wimbledon Women"s Doubles in 1958, losing to Hall-of-Famers Althea Gibson and Maria Bueno. After her career in racket sports ended, Mississippi
Varner would gradually immerse herself in a different kind of sports venture.
Her marriage to horse trainer Gerald Bloss in the late 1960s produced a son, Leigh, in 1971. lieutenant also piqued Mistress Bloss"s interest in the breeding and training of thoroughbred racehorses.
They formed the duPont-Bloss Stables, near El Paso, and often gave their horses names taken from the argot of tennis and other racket sports. In 1996 they were ranked as Top Twenty Racehorse Owners by Thoroughbred Times.