Mary Bradford Kilgore, bowler
Mary Bradford Kilgore, a championship bowler and dedicated mother, died on April 6, 2020, of COVID-19 complications. She was 86 years old.
“My sister and I were in charge of dusting and keeping my mom’s bowling trophies clean,” her daughter Sharon Kilgore-Smith of Cottage Grove said. “She had around 300 trophies.”
Bradford Kilgore built her extensive trophy collection during a 23-year career in mostly the 1960s and 1970s as one of the top female bowlers in the nation.
She was a member of a team sponsored by Motown Records owner Berry Gordy. The highly successful team was perennially one of the top women’s teams in the country.
Bradford Kilgore won several individual state titles while the Motown team was winning numerous Michigan ...