player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameJahial (John)
LastnameParmly Paret
GenderMale
CountryUnited States of America
Date of birth1870-10-03
Place of birthBergen Point, New Jersey, United States of America
Date of death1952-11-24
Place of deathLos Angeles, California, United States of America

About

Jahial Parmly Paret was born on 3 October 1870 in Bergen Point, New Jersey. He was the fourth of the five children – three sons and two daughters – of Henry Paret (1828-76), a native of Manhattan, and head of the woollen clothing manufacturer Henry Paret & Co., and Anne Elizabeth Paret (née Parmly; 1838-1913).

There were French-speaking ancestors on both sides of Jahial Parmly Paret’s family. His paternal great-grandfather, Stephen Paret (1750-1821), was born in the Corrèze department in France, but later emigrated to the United States. Jahial’s paternal grandfather, John Paret (1792-1866), continued the family’s clothing business, which he ran as John Paret & Co. in New York City.

Jahial Parmly Paret’s mother, Anna Parmly, had Belgian ancestry. An obituary of her, published in The New York Times on 29 December 1913, noted the following: “Mrs. Paret’s family on her father’s side was founded by Baron Parelie, who fled from Belgium on account of religious persecution, settling in Connecticut in 1634. She was the widow of Henry Paret, head of Henry & John Paret, said to have been the only wholesale firm of woollen clothiers in New York that weathered the storm of the civil war.”

In addition to taking part in lawn tennis tournaments, Jahial Parmly Paret also authored a number of articles and books various sports, especially lawn tennis. As an adult, he tended to go by the name J. Parmly Paret. The ‘Jahial’ in his name came from his maternal grandfather Dr Jahial Parmly (1807-82), a distinguished dentist and the inventor of the furness for making porcelain teeth.

On the lawn tennis court Parmly Paret won multiple singles titles in a career that extended from 1889 to 1903. One of his most notable titles came in 1902, at the United States Indoor Championships, when he beat Wylie Grant in a five-set final, 4-6, 9-7, 1-6, 8-6, 6-4. In those days the tournament was held at the Seventh Regiment Armory in Manhattan.

In August 1899, Parmly Paret had won the all-comers’ event at the U.S. Championships at the Newport Casino on Rhode Island. In the final he beat Dwight Davis, future donor of the Davis Cup, 7-5, 8-10, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Parmly Paret was beaten in four sets in the challenge round by the holder, Malcolm Whitman, 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.

Some of Parmly Paret’s books include: How to Play Lawn Tennis (1902), Lawn Tennis: Its Past, Present, and Future (1904), Methods and Players of Modern Lawn Tennis (1915) and Mechanics of the Game of Lawn Tennis (1926). As already indicated, he tended to published under the name J. Parmly Paret, shortening his first name.

Jahial Parmly Paret married Laura Maria Wilson (1879-1966) on 26 December 1901 in Manhattan. They later divorced. When the Census of the United States was taken in April 1930, the 59-year-old Parmly Paret was living in Greenwich, Connecticut. The census return lists his occupation as ‘Salesman for a printing house’. Seven months later, on 25 November 1930, also in Greenwich, Connecticut, he married, secondly, Rachelle Hamilton Osbourne (1882-1957). Neither of his marriages produced any children.

In his final years Jahial Parmly Paret and in Pasadena, California, with his second wife. He died there on 24 November 1952 at the age of 82. He was survived by his second wife, Rachelle, who died in Los Angeles in June 1957 at the age of 74.

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