Kuhle Family Fun Facts
By Jan Mathew
(This is a supplement to “Playing to Win”, in the Aug/Sep 2024 issue of Decatur Magazine)
Forty-five years as tennis director for the MGM Grand in Las Vegas saw Lornie Kuhle rubbing shoulders with celebrities like Clint Eastwood, Julie Andrews, Katharine Hepburn, Sugar Ray Leonard, Merv Griffin, Shirley MacLaine and Dean Martin. “Katharine Hepburn was an excellent athlete,” he recalls, “but she always had to have her German Shepherd on the court.”
About 15 years ago, Lornie purchased a duplex on Summit Avenue — just a few houses from his childhood home. “I furnished the home with all of my parent’s furniture and artifacts, so it’s kind of a time warp for me when I visit Decatur and stay there,” he says. When he’s not peeking over the fence, Lornie enjoys the view of Fairview Park courts from his house’s second floor. “I like to joke that I’m Decatur’s only returning tourist,” he laughs.
As a 13-year-old, Chuck Kuhle took a trip to visit his older brother, then tennis director at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Among the highlights: Lornie took Chuck to see a movie at his buddy Dean Martin’s house. “A while after I came back home the movie opened at the Avon Theater,” Chuck recalls. “I told my friends I had already seen it at Dean Martin’s house. Of course, they didn’t believe me . . . “
Betsy Kuhle describes her parents, June and Lawrence, as “consummate volunteers.” June chaired the legendary Fun Fair and sewed puppets for children in the hospital. Lawrence, active in Macon County politics and longtime purchasing manager for St. Mary’s, had a heart for the hospital, too. “Dad didn’t think the hospital patients were getting their mail in a timely fashion,” Betsy recalls. “So, on the way to driving us to school at St. Patrick’s every morning, he’d stop at the post office and pick up the hospital’s mail to deliver himself.”