Remembering Lindsay Stapleton Morehouse, College Tennis Champ

Lindsay Stapleton Morehouse, remembered by family and friends as academically and athletically gifted, worked as an equity research analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods on the 89th floor of the South Tower. At 24 years old, she had lived in Manhattan for only five months before her death at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Lindsay, who also excelled at soccer, was especially passionate about tennis, having played since she was a child. Perhaps it ran in her blood: her mother, Kathleen Stapleton Maycen, recalled playing five sets of tennis on Lindsay’s due date in an oral history recorded by the 9/11 Memorial Museum in a collaboration with StoryCorps.

Lindsay was the co-captain of the women’s tennis team at Williams College in northwestern Massachusetts, where she earned All American Honors as a doubles player her junior year and led her team to a second-place finish at the 1999 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Women’s Tennis Championship.  

College classmates praised her performance, on court, as working as hard as anyone on the team to learn and improve. A memorial tribute on the Williams College website states that Lindsay’s “competitive comportment was that of a true Williams champion ... fair, gracious, and composed in both victory and defeat.”    

“She packed so much into her life,” her mother reflected. “She bungee jumped in New Zealand. She was able to ride gondolas in Italy, in Venice. She played tennis on the tennis circuit in Europe… She lived life fully and very passionately.”

For all her accomplishments, Lindsay was also determined to help others. Her application to become a Big Sister mentor in New York City’s Big Brother Big Sister program was approved shortly before 9/11. She was due to meet her first Little Sister on September 15.

Kathleen recounted in her oral history an enthusiastic call received from Lindsay related to this news: “‘Mom, I figured out what I want to do with my life; ‘I want to help children that are less privileged than I am. I really think I can make a difference for them.’”

A tennis racket used by Lindsay is currently on view in the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s In Memoriam gallery. The artifacts newly on display in the gallery were chosen to coincide with the opening of “Comeback Season: Sports After 9/11,” a special exhibition that explores the healing role that sports played in aftermath of the 2001 attacks. 

In memory of Lindsay, her grieving parents established the Lindsay Morehouse Memorial College Scholarship Fund, which helps young people pursue a college education.

“One of the things that’s wonderful for us is knowing how many people are being helped today because of what Lindsay wanted to achieve in her life,” Kathleen said.  In recognition of Lindsay’s athletic accomplishments, a tree was planted in her memory next to the Williams College tennis courts, complemented by a formal memorial plaque and stone. There are also tennis courts named for her in Palm Beach Gardens, Fl., where Lindsay had attended high school. 

By 9/11 Memorial Staff