Jimmy Carter’s Fair Lawn Connection

Brennan, Billie Jean's coach, taught Carters, too

First Lady Rosalynn Carter, Frank Brennan and President Carter at Camp David

Last month we told the story of Frank Brennan, the Fair Lawn tennis instructor who coached Billie Jean King and often had her stay with his big family in their small home on Greenwood Drive near Radburn School.

We did not tell another part of the Brennan story: his connection to President Jimmy Carter.

By the time Carter entered the White House, Brennan had retreated from big-time tennis, which had become a pro sport. He focused on giving private lessons and running his indoor tennis club in Upper Saddle River and his sleep-away youth summer tennis camp in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

One day in 1977, Brennan got a call from the White House. At least that’s what the caller said; assuming it was a prank by his son, Brennan said, “Frankie, I know it’s you!’’ and hung up.

It was not a prank. President Carter, it turned out, wanted to give tennis lessons to his wife Rosalynn for her 50^th birthday. Mercersburg is about a 50-minute drive from Camp David, the rustic presidential retreat in Maryland. Could Brennan come down to give the First Lady some lessons?

He did, and hit it off with the Carter family. When Brennan politely declined an offer to stay overnight, he said that Carter told him, “You’re the first person who’s ever refused the president’s invitation to stay here.’’

An unexpected friendship

The Camp David tennis lessons continued, with the president at least once serving as ball boy.

Brennan said he found Carter to be simple, plainspoken, pious (the family joined hands and said grace before meals) and thrifty. To conserve electricity, he refused to turn on the air conditioning in the Camp David dining room, even though it was 90 degrees outside.

Brennan, an Irish Catholic postal employee who was born in Paterson, found he had much in common with the Southern Baptist peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia. “A very down to earth guy,’’ he told The Record. “He’s very honest,’’ he told a Pennsylvania newspaper. “Whatever I ask him — whether it’s about politics, or oil — he answers. He never hedges.’’

He continued to give lessons to the First Lady and other members of the Carter family; first daughter Amy Carter, Secret Service in tow, attended the Mercersburg camp.

The president, Brennan told a reporter, was a good player who could be better: “I try to make his backhand a little better, and improve his net game. He loves to run, and stays in shape.’’

In May 1978 Brennan and his wife Lillian were invited to attend a White House state dinner for Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu, a big tennis fan (and murderous dictator).

In the receiving line, instead of a handshake from the president, Brennan got a bear hug. Later, Carter came by the table where the Brennans were sitting with Joan Mondale, the vice president’s wife. According to Lillian, Carter told Mrs. Mondale, “Frank is the best guy I’ve met since I’ve been president.’’

“He made me feel 20 feet tall,’’ Brennan told The Record.

The Brennans were invited to stay overnight in the Lincoln Bedroom but – again – he declined.

Instead, early the next morning he came to the White House to hit some tennis balls with Carter before the president’s National Security Council meeting. The two days constituted “the adventure of my life,’’ he told The Record later that month.

Jimmy Carter and Frank Brennan, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, 1978

In July 1978, a day before their wedding anniversary, the president and the first lady came to the Mercersburg camp. The proprietor took them to lunch to celebrate. He later mused,“To think, at the end of your career, you meet up with people like this who appreciate your talents and what you can do for them.’’

If Carter were re-elected and again invited the Brennans to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom, he said, this time he would accept

That was not to be. Carter was defeated in 1980; Brennan died in 1986 at 72.

His son, Frankie Jr., who became the women’s tennis coach at Stanford University, recalled his father telling him, “Jimmy Carter and I have something special.’’

And so, years after his father’s death, Frankie went to a reception at Stanford for the former president. As he approached Carter in the receiving line, he says, Carter recognized him, and said, “Your father and I had something special.’’

Brennan gets a presidential hug, Mercersburg, 1978