Mary Kenniston - Part 7 (Survivor, Storyteller, and Keeper of Pool’s Memory)

In the final chapter of our seven-part conversation with WPBA Hall of Famer Mary Kenniston, the story comes full circle. Mary reflects on the closing years of her competitive career, the health battle that changed everything, and the determination that carried her back to the table playing better, in some ways, than ever before.

With candor, wit, and hard-earned perspective, Mary shares how she rebuilt her game after serious illness, teaching herself how to swing her arm again, refining her fundamentals, and discovering new ways to aim that she wishes she’d known from the beginning. She looks back on the stamina demands of tournament pool, the painful decision to retire, and the one shot from the 1989 U.S. Open she would take back if given a single career mulligan.

But this episode is about more than competition. It’s about legacy.

Mary tells the remarkable story of how a few forgotten boxes of photographs became an extraordinary accidental archive of pool history. What began as a personal trip down memory lane turned into a passion project that has preserved thousands upon thousands of images of players, tournaments, and moments that might otherwise have been lost. In doing so, Mary has become the game’s unofficial historian, reconnecting generations of fans and players with the sport’s rich past.

She also opens up about life after touring professionally, from dealing poker and caring for family to writing, commentary, and chronicling the people and personalities who built the game she loves.

Asked how she hopes to be remembered, Mary’s answer says it all: as both a survivor and a steward of pool’s history.

This moving and memorable finale is a fitting close to the life story of a woman whose impact on the game extends far beyond the titles she won.

Transcript

Mary Kenniston 0:14

I got it all back except I have a tingling, you know, like when you're foot to sleep. I have a tingling in my right lower quadrant. So I have a limp. Try, I missed one tournament because I had my daughter. It was the Detroit tournament was in May. So I won it in 94. And then missed it in 95. I don't know what the reason was. So the next turn, oh that's what it was. I missed it in 93 because I had her. And then in 94 I came back and won it. And uh and uh and then in March of 95 I got sick, and I still played, and I managed to get my game back, and by this time, you know, I talked him into the house, so I have a table in the house, and so I'm walking past the table all the time, you know, because my room was on one side of the house, and I had my table in the formal living room combination that was in the middle of the house, and I had walked to walk past that to get to the other three bedrooms, the kitchen, the living room, you know, of uh one day after a month or so, you know, I'm still using the walker and my legs in a brace and everything. And I so I pulled the cue down off my off the rack. It was on the wall, and I couldn't do it, you know, it wasn't because I just couldn't swing my arm. And I thought, oh this is real nice. And I'm going to physical therapy three times a week. And uh so about a week later I tried it again. You know, she'd go to bed and I'd talk teach myself how to swing my arm again and to make a bridge, you know, and and to play. And and it's funny because I pro I ended up playing better than I did before I got sick. Probably because my fundamentals were better. I didn't re really I couldn't stand like I used to. So I looked in books and I saw how you're supposed to stand. So I I found a position where I could because my back foot is the one that's turned in. So I found a stance that I could do out of a book, and I taught myself to swing an arm my arm again. So I started to, you know, by 90, maybe by 97, I got my game back, and it was I was actually playing better than I was before I got sick. But I had no stamina. After a match, you know, hour, hour and a half match, I'd be exhausted. But it would I'd be okay because I could rest and then I'd play my next match, and you know, most of the time I'd win. By the time I got to Saturday night, now in those days we played, we had three-day events. So Saturday night there was only a few players left, and then on Sunday there were three. So on Saturday night you had to play back to back to back to back, as long as you kept winning, you know, or if you're on the loser side, back to back. So Steve would say, All right, Mayor, table three in five minutes, take five. Well, I never could get past fifth place, fifth, sixth place, because I was just I couldn't do it. So I just finally in mid-99, it was Detroit when I quit and I told everybody, I said, I'm I'm done. And they said, Oh, you'll be back. No, no. And uh so I I retired in mid-99. And even today, I I have better stamina than I did then, but I still wonder if I could do the back-to-back to back-to-back, like we used to have to do. In fact, the way they run tournaments today, where I don't think you guys play back to back to back, do you, Alison?

Allison Fisher 4:23

You can't. If you go into the losers bracket, you can. You can play five matches on Saturday. Oh, really? So if you can, yeah.

Maary Kenniston 4:30

But so then I still not all tournaments, not all tournaments, but some. I played in one tournament after that. Charlie, Charlie Williams called me up. I'm living in Florida now. I had to move down there to take care of my Charlie lived in Orlando and he calls me up. He says, Mary, I'm doing having a tournament up in New York, women's tournament. He says, You got to come play. It's 2014. Charlie, I said, I haven't played in a tournament in 15 years. Well, he kept hounding me, he kept calling me. So I kept telling him, I says, You find me a stakehorse. I says, I'll go play. Finally he calls me up and he says, Okay, you're in. I had my plane ticket covered, everything. In fact, Earl let me stay in his house, in his apartment. He moved in with his girlfriend for the week, so I stayed in Earl's apartment while I was there. It was right around the corner from the pool room. It was this 10-ball tournament, and and you were in like, I think it was six-player brackets, six or eight player brackets. And it was round robin, you had to play everybody in your bracket. So Ava and I advanced to the final round of single elimination. And the night before, and I'm playing really good now. In fact, the last my mass match is on YouTube. I played this Russian champion, right? And I in my last game with her, I broke the balls and I had a 210 combination. What had gone in the pocket. I'd made the one in the side on the break. The two ten combinations set up, but it was tough. The 10 was like a foot, foot and a half from the pocket, corner pocket, and the two was a foot and a half from that, and my cue ball was three or four feet from there. But I went and looked at the shot, and all I had to do was just try to make the two. Because if I made the two, I'd make the ten. So I called the two ten the Russian girl snotty to rolls her eyes, right? And uh anyway, so I I made the ball, made the combination, and won the match, right? And uh, and the reason I I won the match, it was an absolute hanger. And the reason I won the match is because I had taught myself center-to-edge aiming, pivot aiming. And I wish I had known that. You know, when we started, you know, there was nothing on the internet like it is today. If I'd have known that, I would have won a lot more tournaments, won a lot more games, a lot more matches.

Mike Gonzalez 7:06

So obviously, Mayor, after you wound down your career, you probably looked around and said, all right, what am I doing now? And I'm sure you kept quite active between 99 or so when you said you hung up your competitive career to uh 2020 when you were inducted to the WPBA Hall of Fame, which we're anxious to talk to you about, but sort of help us bridge that gap because I know you got involved in some commentary, a little bit of tournament write-up work and columnist work for various publications. Tell us about uh what happened in those first two decades of the uh century.

Maary Kenniston 7:38

Well, the first part, the first few years, I I went back to dealing poker. And I met my sweetie. He was in the 10th seat when I was dealing one day.

Mark Wilson 7:52

That's right next to the dealer for those of you that don't know.

Maary Kenniston 7:56

He said, you know, and this is what I was first working at this place, and neither one of us can remember what he said, but it was, you know, I had just started working, so you know, I didn't want to rock the boat, you know. So I was just, you know, they call it dummy up and deal. So that's all I did. I didn't say a word. And there was this one guy in the game that was really giving me a hard time. And Al, the 10-seat, said, just cut him to his knees and said exactly what I was thinking. My head snapped around. I looked at him, I said, I love you, man. He laughed. And that's how we kind of we met. Anyway, Allison, he told me to tell you that we've been together 26 Christmases now.

Allison Fisher 8:38

Oh.

Maary Kenniston 8:39

Do you remember you asking how long we've been together in Charlotte? And I told him we told you so many Christmases.

Allison Fisher 8:47

It's lovely. I love that. That's wonderful. So that's part one.

Maary Kenniston 8:52

But I like I say, I met him in the tent seat and I was dealing poker, and I dealt poker for several years. I worked at the Palms, which, you know, had a great web. That was the best job I ever had. If I I only worked a few hours a day, like four or five hours a day, and I'd come home with two, three, four hundred dollars in tips. I mean, it was unbelievable. And then my but my mom she called and needed me to come down to Florida. So I quit dealing, hated it, but you know, did. And so we moved down to Florida. By this time, you know, I had my pool table, and I had set it up in different houses, so you know, we always had to find a house to put a pool table in. So we lived down there for 11 years. And other than Charlie's tournament, I never played in any tournaments, but I had a table in my house. And so, you know, people would come over at hit balls, and like I say, I turned taught myself how to aim, you know. Aiming for me was always the holy grail. It was always the weakest part of my game. And this is one of my regrets that I didn't uh well, I did. I asked a lot of players. You know, I knew all the guys back then, you know, and Jimmy Rempe was the only one that ever, you know, most of them told me they, you know, couldn't be bothered or girls won't be able to play or you know, all this stuff. And uh and Rempi told me, aim at like quarters of the ball. So I did that, you know, but like I I really didn't know how to aim, and I had all my little, you know, the different shots would come up, and in those days, you know, a lot of us used a lot of English. So I had my own little systems for making each shot. And then when Samoas came out, this the game really changed because you know, you went from having to have a very good stroke to play on those slow tables to now, you know, I was afraid to swing my arm, you know.

Allison Fisher 10:57

Yeah, it falls.

Maary Kenniston 10:58

Oh, it took me several years between you know 89 and 93 to finally learn how to play on. And the thing was too is in Vegas we had Simonis on the tables, but it played different because it was dry. You know, you'd go you'd leave Vegas and the tables be boinging and they'd be triple fast. You know, at home I play, I was always in stroke at home, and I'd go to the tournament, I'd be dead stroke, and if I could survive till the last, you know, you know, I'd be fine, you know, because the tables would be kind of broken in by then, you know, but it was hard. But Amy, Amy was always the weak spot in my game. Even though I made, you know, you know, I did quite well. I always played better position than most of the girls. Oh, actually all of the girls at that time. And and I kicked, absolutely kicked better. You know, I had Ellie K Ed Kelly teach me how to kick. And uh so I kicked, you know, they used to tease me and say I kicked like Ephred, you know, but I did. Uh you know, I didn't mean it might not have kicked like Ephraim, but I kicked pretty good. I very rarely gave up ball in hand, let's put it that way. And and and I knew how to play safe. So that's why I did well in a lot of tournaments. And if the balls were laying out there, and you know, I can get out, you know. But aiming was always the weak spot in my game, and it was like the holy grail. And so I I started looking at AZ Billiards and I saw this 90-90 aiming. And so I and the guy offered to give lessons over the phone. And I'm thinking, well, how the hell can you do that? So anyway, but about six months later I kept seeing, you know, all these people that I respected, you know, use their own names, or I knew who they were behind their screen names, you know, were talking to so anyway. I finally called him up one day. He says, Oh, Mary's, I remember you from Boulevard in Philly. Well, I didn't remember him. He was probably just one of the guys that was, you know, there. He says, You got a pool table available? I says, Yeah. He says, Well, take your phone, just put me on speaker, he says, put it on the rail. He says, get the cue ball and set up a shot. I said, Okay. He walked me through pivot aiming. I fooled with that and I was just floored.

Mike Gonzalez 13:18

Now, what what year are we in here?

Maary Kenniston 13:20

I'm thinking 2010-ish.

Mike Gonzalez 13:23

Okay. All right.

Maary Kenniston 13:24

So you're still working on your, oh, I played every day. I just couldn't compete. You know, I'd play, I'd, and most of the time I played by myself, but I didn't mind because it was like therapy. And I would just play as long as my foot held up.

Mike Gonzalez 13:38

Were you still thinking you were going to compete at some level, or was it just more for your own personal gratification? I'm going to learn to aim.

Maary Kenniston 13:45

Yeah, finally. I mean, so like I say, it was like the holy grail, you know. And no, I had no interest in competing because I knew I couldn't hold up, you know, you know, physically.

Mike Gonzalez 13:55

Yeah.

Maary Kenniston 13:56

And now I'm playing better than I ever did.

Mike Gonzalez 14:00

Nice to still have that draw.

Maary Kenniston 14:02

I actually I sold my table finally. Right before we moved to Tucson. In fact, I sold it to Bill McDaniel, the cue maker. And he made Karen Coescue, didn't he? Yeah. And uh so anyway, he and uh Chase came down and and took it. And anyway, so but I'd had it for a long time.

Mike Gonzalez 14:24

What are your recollections of getting the call to the hall back in 2020?

Maary Kenniston 14:30

Belinda called me. And uh I had kind of gotten a heads up that the year before that it was between Gerda and I. And Goethe got it that year. And so Belinda says, you know, when she told me that Gerta got it, she says, you know, you'll probably get it next year. I said, okay. So I got the phone call in 2020, and so we made arrangements for me to go. I think you guys were gonna have a tournament in West Virginia and of 2020, and it was gonna be in the spring, and so that was where I was gonna be inducted, and then COVID hit. So everything, you know, just got shut down. So I didn't get actually, I keep telling my Al, I says, yeah, it's gonna be real nice. I'm gonna get COVID and die, and I'm never gonna get him all of fame, you know. Oh my god. Anyway, so uh Ray Hansen was running uh was running some tournaments in Vegas, and he asked me if I wanted to come do commentary. In those days, you used to have to show up to do commentary. And I said, sure. So I called up Belinda, and anyway, we made arrangements for me to get inducted. Because, you know, to be honest with you, I didn't want to wait till the end of the year or anything else, and I really didn't care about getting inducted. All I just want to do is get my name on the list, you know. And uh, you know, so uh we all got together before the streaming started, before the tournament started. In fact, I think they had a predator event going on. So after the predator stuff was over, that was when the U.S. Opens were gonna start. So I came in at the end of the Predator and I saw you, Allison, and a few people. So I had probably, I don't know, 15 or 20 people, mostly just my friends, you know. You know, I called up my friends from LA and Vegas, and you know, and so a bunch of them came up, and and I had a few players that came also. Lori John uh introduced me, and so I didn't get inducted until I guess it was I don't know, May of 22, something like that.

Mike Gonzalez 16:50

22, yeah.

Maary Kenniston 16:53

And then I did commentary, you know, the rest of the time I was there. So that's how I ended up doing commentary, and then later the headphones that I'm using, when it it became possible to do commentary from home. So, you know, Ray bought had me, you know, he reimbursed me for the headphones. And so I did commentary for him for several years. You know, the the ten ball. He's mostly doing one pocket now. And I'm you know, I could you know, I know basic one pocket, but you know, he mostly has Larry Schwartz and Jeremy Jones and Billy and Cardona, and those guys do the commentary. So I don't commentate as much anymore because he's doing mostly one-pocket tournaments now. Yeah, and when I but you know, I started writing, doing write-ups for him. He asked me if I'd write a story on the tournament for him. And I said, Well, sure. Because, you know, what happened was they'd have a tournament and they'd do a short paragraph, and it would be filled with misspellings and grammatical errors. So I would just, you know, tell I just say, you know, I'd type up what I thought would be better. I got to the point where race is, why don't you just write up the story? So that's how I kind of got started writing stories. And then I started, AZ Billiards wanted them. So I started, you know, sending them write-ups, and then Mike Howarton and AZ Billiards asked me if I'd cover some other tournaments for him, because he didn't want to go or didn't have time, you know. So I did some other events. The most recent events are the Ultimate Pool USA events that they're just starting now. Got another one coming up pretty soon. And so, and then he asked me if I'd be interested in doing a column for him, a monthly column, and related to my photos. And so I'm doing a monthly column and it's called Chalking Up the Memories. And it started in May. And I I asked him, I says, if you don't mind, would you mind if I introduced myself to because most people don't know who the hell I am anymore, you know, because I'm not out there. Even people that that, you know, they might know me from the Wall of Fame photos, but you know, most people don't know who I am. That's why I stopped going to Derby Derby City. I didn't know anybody, you know, everybody died, or you know, all the people I knew had died, or they weren't coming anymore, or you know. So I asked Mike if he would mind if I introduced myself over several issues before I because it wasn't his idea for the column was just take like a person like Weenie Beanie, and I would just do a write-up on Weenie Beanie. And when I'm done with that, then I'll start doing, you know, the and I've done a couple of obituaries also. I did one on Mika, I did one on Buddy. Right, you know, so and I supply it out of the pictures.

Mike Gonzalez 20:00

Well, it's nice that you've can stayed so connected to pool, and and you know, one thing we alluded to when we talked about the Wall of Fame and sort of closing out that full circle story was that uh you've now become the de facto archivist of the of the of the pool world, if you will, in terms of historian, photographic historian. And so just briefly tell our listeners a little bit about what that's all about.

Maary Kenniston 20:24

And it was a total accident, the whole thing. I've mentioned about the photos that I had on the wall of the pool room. Well, when the pool room closed, Al and I just took down all the photos, even left them in their frames, just put them in boxes. And so when we moved to Florida from Vegas, of course, you know, those were some of the boxes that we took with us, and uh, and we had an extra bedroom that was basically our storeroom. So I was went in there looking for something else, and I came across these boxes of photos, and I hadn't looked at them in a while. I opened up the box and I saw these pictures, and you know, so anyway, the first picture that was laying on the top, it just brought back a memory, you know. So then I sat down on the floor and I started going through the pictures. I've been there several hours, and Al finally comes, he says, There you are. What are you doing?

Mike Gonzalez 21:15

I've gone down around.

Maary Kenniston 21:16

That's what I told him. I says, I says, Well, I just stumbled on these pictures that we took down. He says, Oh, yeah, and he sits down on the floor next to me. And so now he wasn't around in those days, but he did go with me to a couple senior tournaments and the IPT. So he knew some of my friends. He knew Billy, he knew Buddy and Billy Johnson and those guys. So whenever I came across, you know, one of those guys, you know, I tell him the story or you sat there for a couple more. I was anyway, so we finally put them all back in the boxes. And then about oh, I don't know, two weeks later, Julie Nojik died by suicide. And you know, when I first moved. To Florida, she came and lived with me for a couple of months. You know, she was having trouble at home and with her father. And so we you know, we were still tight. She passed away. She was always hounding me to get on Facebook. Be her friend on Facebook. And I used to I didn't know what Facebook was about. You know, I didn't have time for it. You know, you know, it wasn't interesting. I kept saying, I'm your friend already. What do I need to be your friend? You know, I I didn't get it. So now I you know I get calls from Laurie John, Ava, you know, a whole bunch of people. And Jan McWater said to me, Go on Facebook and go to Julie's page and you can see all the you know the comments and stuff and pictures that people posted about Julie. I said, All right. So I told Al, well, he finally got me to get on Facebook and uh, you know, and we both roll our eyes. So when I got on there, I tried to go to Julie's page, but I couldn't see anything on her page because there wasn't her friend. Yeah. So now I told Al, I says, I says, come look at this. I says, Everybody's posting pictures of their kids, their pets, their lunch, you know. You know, you know, it's just this is you know, and and and when I signed up, immediately I mean I just got barraged with friend requests from everybody that I knew from the old days, you know. And uh so now within like two days I have like 300 friends, right? Anyway, so now a couple of days later, he says, he says, you know those pictures you have of those all the pool players? Because I told him about all these pool players are friend requesting me. He said, Why don't you post a few of them to see if anybody has any interest in them? I said, All right, you know, I'm still like not wanting to do it. He said, come on, just do it. So he brought a couple boxes out and I picked out, you know, like 10 or 12, and I posted them. Well, the internet just exploded. You know, just you know, all the pictures I had were from 30 years ago. You know, how we all looked back then. You know, most of the pictures that I posted were from, you know, the early 90s or before. So everybody's clamoring for more. So I knew I had, so I now Al says, well, here I've got a scanner, so he showed me how to use it, and he showed me how to post pictures, and you know, we figured it out together. I knew I only had about 300 pictures, so now you know I'm posting like five a day. So now I'm getting near the end. And Sherry Stout had been commenting on a lot of them. So I called Sherry. I says, you know, I said, I'm getting down to the end. I says, I says, I you should, I should have taken more pictures from your file cabinet. She says, Well, you know, she says, I still have them all. She says, but they're all boxed up. And they're mixed up with other pictures and you know, they're all photos in the boxes. She says, but they're all mixed up with family pictures and vacations. And she says, but she says, if I find them, she says, you know, because she had moved to Charleston by then. And so she says, Yeah, I haven't seen them in years. She says, but you know, when I find them, she says, I'll send you some. I says, All right. I said, What I'll do is I'll scan them for you and then I D them to the best of my ability and then send them back. She says, I don't want them back. She says, I said, all right, I'll send you a digital copy. She started sending me photos. I don't know how many she sent me, but there were thousands. I mean, I was scanning like, I mean, just unbelievable. You know, and some, you know, some of them were blurry and some of them were perfect, and you know, a lot of them brought back memories and this and that. And, you know, I remember a lot of the, and I could tell what tournament was. If I if I didn't have the information on the back of the photo, like with the girls, I could tell what year it was by Laurie John's hair. She changed her hairstyle every year every couple years, right? So I could, you know, go by the hairstyles. And uh then I would see like the trophy shots, you know. I remembered, you know, well, that had to be Minnesota because it's Vivian and Laurie John. And uh so she sent me thousands. She said, I used to get like a mailbox, what are those one price mailboxes that they had at the post office? And the last got the last one she sent had like 800 photos in it, and that was uh about two years ago. She says, I think this is it. Oh lord. So anyway, so now I'm posting these photos, and then so somebody messages me and says, Well, I got photos from the you know the 2007 US Open. You want them? Sure, send them. And then another one would say, Well, I got some pictures from such and such. So now it just kind of snowballed from there. I mean, it was a total accident. And so then now my friends are dying, you know, and so I just started writing stuff about them, you know, when they die. And I had some pictures, you know, it's okay. It was all an accident.

Mike Gonzalez 27:30

I would say that uh in addition to just the challenge you face in getting these properly cataloged, people identified timelines, whatever you you know you do to organize. Yeah, yeah, but but but then thinking ahead, because you've amassed such a a uh uh a wealth of uh information about the old days that that people need to know.

Maary Kenniston 27:53

Blessed with a very good memory.

Mike Gonzalez 27:56

But I guess the the point I'm getting to is uh father time always wins. And so who is the next Mary Keniston that's gonna be the keeper of all this?

Maary Kenniston 28:06

I don't know. Mike Howerton and I have talked about that, easy billiards. And he's probably gonna get my photos. He's been here's as an aside, I thought about National Billiard News that they had to have all these photos. So I got I called Vicky and she gave me uh Conrad Berkman's phone number. So I called him. I missed 50,000 photos from National Billiard News. He gave them to Mike Howerton. Missed them by a week.

Mike Gonzalez 28:40

At least somebody has them.

Maary Kenniston 28:42

So he's been sending me some uh, you know, he's I guess he's really busy because he just he always tells me he says, I just have no time. I says, Well, just send me some photos, you know, and I'll do for you like I did, you know. So I've been IDing a lot of them and and posting them and sending them back to them.

Mike Gonzalez 29:03

I suppose at the end of the day, Mary Keniston may be more well remembered for this passion project than anything else you've ever done.

Maary Kenniston 29:12

Isn't it ironic? You know, but it is what it is.

Mike Gonzalez 29:16

Well, thank you for doing it on behalf of the pool fans everywhere.

Allison Fisher 29:21

Yeah, it's a terrific thing to to do, isn't it? To keep it out there, keep the names out there in the stories.

Maary Kenniston 29:27

Yeah, because people, like I was talking before, nobody remembers Johnny Everlino, you know. Yeah, I've got pictures of him posting them.

Allison Fisher 29:33

Yeah, I used to do an impersonation of him.

Mark Wilson 29:36

Oh, I'd love it.

Allison Fisher 29:37

Half a cup of coffee black.

Maary Kenniston 29:40

That's what he used to say in that voice. Give me a cup of coffee, man. You know, right, yeah, black. I know it's yeah. Yeah, I've posted 20,000 photos, over 20,000 photos so far, and I've got probably another 30,000 that I haven't posted.

Allison Fisher 29:57

Keep it busy for a moment, wouldn't it?

Maary Kenniston 29:59

It gives me something to do, but it amazes me how nobody can remember anything.

Allison Fisher 30:03

Yeah, well, that's true. Yeah, it's true. I can't remember yesterday.

Maary Kenniston 30:07

Yeah, like I'll call Vicky and I'll say, Vicki, yeah, she's in the picture. I said, Vicki, when was it? Where was this taken? You know, what can oh geez, I yeah, I don't I don't know. I don't remember. I think maybe well, anyway, I have my own DC point.

Allison Fisher 30:19

Moving on.

Mike Gonzalez 30:20

Yeah, thanks for thanks for doing what you've been doing. And uh and thanks a lot also for all the time you've shared with Ali and Mark and I sharing your story. But before we let you go, we always like to finish with three questions, as you may know, if you've done your homework. And I think I'll probably let Mr. Wilson ask the first question.

Mark Wilson 30:42

All right, Mary, if you knew when you were 20 years old what you know now, what would you do differently?

Maary Kenniston 30:51

Well, first of all, I would have finished college. You know, if after I tore my knees up, I didn't have any reason. I couldn't stand being there. You know, I'd see the other girls playing basketball and softball. Couldn't stand, so I quit. And I started to go to night school, you know, after I went home, went to work, and it just I hated it. So I just dropped out, you know. I've got about three and a half years in, I never finished. And and uh as far as professionally, I don't think it ever would have helped me in anything that I ended up doing. It was more for just for myself, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 31:38

Yeah, yeah. But no, Mary, you you did you did get to work at the Hinky Dinky.

Maary Kenniston 31:44

Yeah, and that's where I first discovered Pool. And uh like I say, we talked about it before. The two the other two things I regret was not not knowing how not learning CTE when I first started, because I was always right behind Gene Belukis. Well, if I had if I had known what I know now, it would have been a battle between the two of us. I mean, it was already a battle, but she won most of the time because of her break.

Allison Fisher 32:16

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 32:16

So interesting.

Maary Kenniston 32:17

Yeah, and then the other thing was, as I mentioned before, was just not taking pictures of myself with all these guys. I mean, you know, with Willie Mustgowney and Irving Crane and Fats, and you know, and I mean, and you know, all the hustlers, you know, that I knew. And uh, I have very few pictures of myself with these other people. And most of them were taken by other people and sent to me. It is what it is.

Mike Gonzalez 32:40

Fair enough. Fair enough. I'll take question number two, which is we're gonna give you one career mulligan, one shot to do over that would have made a difference. Where would you take it?

Maary Kenniston 32:53

It was 1989, the US Open.

Mike Gonzalez 32:56

And that didn't take long.

Maary Kenniston 32:59

I got it written down so I'd remember. I was playing Joanne Mason Parker. And she was playing real good that tournament. In the game to win the match and get into the finals. I had a shot, played position to shoot underneath it to get below it and shoot it past the side pocket. It was a little bit off the rail, shoot it up table, and then draw it one, two, three rails and back to the center of the table for the nine ball. Because I had to cut it in. And you know, I didn't think anything about it. Well, anyway, I overamped a little bit on the shot and it hung up. And Joanne won that game because it was only the eight and the nine on the table. And and then won the next one or two. And I ended up in the finals against Ava and won the match, won the won the tournament. And that was my tournament to win the US Open in 1989. I just overamped on that shot and Jeff Carter came up to me after the match. He says, Mayor, man. He says, You that shot you didn't stroke it. I says, I know, Jeff. I didn't stroke it. I I poked it, you know. And it was just, you know, I said, just smooth stroked it, and it would have just really bing, bing, bing, bing, you know. And like I say, none of the girls knew how to do that. You know, they would just try to cut if they they'd either play safe or try to cut it in and go back and forth across the table and then take the long shot on the on the nine. You know, I mean, it was just, it was like just so easy. I just saw it. You know, I played position for that shot and they just hung it up. And still to this day, it haunts me.

Mike Gonzalez 34:42

All right, we're gonna leave we're gonna leave the final question to Alison Fisher.

Allison Fisher 34:47

Mary, how would you like to be remembered?

Maary Kenniston 34:51

Well, we've already discussed the historian, the de facto historian and archivist part of it, and I said, well, I so I suppose I'll be remembered for that. But I think the personally, I think that I would like to be known as a survivor. I have had several ups and downs in my life, and I've always come back for it. I think probably just because I'm just I don't want to curse. I'm very stubborn. I'm very stubborn, and I I'm almost always right. And so I I I know that I can like like with what happened to me in 1995. You know, I heard that, I'm gonna be in a wheelchair and the rest of my well, excuse me, but you know, if I'm gonna be in a wheelchair the rest of my life, I don't know if I can figure out a way to kill myself. Because everything I did, I mean, even at the time, I mean, I was 41 when that happened. You had to go take three steps to get up into the platform in my pool room. I used to just take them in one step, you know, just leap up to you. I'm I'm playing softball on the on the you know on the Qtopia baseball team with the guys. I'm the best player. I play first base. At 41, I'm the best player. These are all like 20-something kids. You know, I was still, you know, so active. And and then that happened to me. So when I heard the doctor say that to me, it's like the hell with you, you know. So it was it was my determination, I guess, that I've always had. So I would I'd like to so de facto historian and survivor.

Allison Fisher 36:37

What a great career it's been, isn't it? It's a it's been a fun, you've had a really fun life, and we really appreciate you sharing.

Maary Kenniston 36:44

Yeah, I wouldn't change it for anything because I've been to places that nobody would go, even if you had a lot of money. You know, if even if I was a zillionaire, you know, I've been to places that I would never go to. I've met people that I would never meet, and and I've had experiences that I would never have had. Like, you know, just sharing some of the stories with you. I got a million of them.

Mike Gonzalez 37:09

I can't imagine. They're certainly all very real, aren't they, Mark?

Maary Kenniston 37:16

Yeah.

Mark Wilson 37:17

Uh I will tell you this that the Mary has graded my papers on some of my stories that I've written and corrected some grammatical errors. She's very tough.

Maary Kenniston 37:27

I don't grade them, I just help you with your I edit them. That's all.

Mark Wilson 37:31

Yes, there they go.

Maary Kenniston 37:33

I don't grade them because they're great. You write great stories too.

Mike Gonzalez 37:37

He does. Well, listen, thanks a million for uh adding your story to several others, and we hope there'll be many, many more life stories here on Legends of the Cube.

Maary Kenniston 37:48

I'm so honored to be asked to be to join my friends, you know. Uh, not only you and to meet you, Mike, but also my friends that have already been on here or are gonna be on here in the future just to be one of. And uh so thank you so much. It's been uh it's been fun.

Allison Fisher 38:07

Thank you for listening to another episode of Legends of the Cube. If you like what you hear, wherever you listen to a podcast, including Apple and Spotify, please follow, subscribe, and spread the word. Give our podcast a five-star rating and share your thoughts. Visit our website and support our full history project. Until our next golden break with more Legends of the Cube. So long, everybody.