Jean Tenney Gray graduated from Hagerstown High School, St. Mary’s College and William & Mary College before receiving a Masters in Science from the University of Wisconsin. The Clear Spring native, who started using bows and arrows her father made for her, started a long and impressive string of archery records.

Jean was a Maryland state champion each year from 1935-38, the Old Dominion Association champion each year from 1935-37, and was the Womens’ Nation Archery champion in 1937 when it was held in Lancaster, Pa. She was awarded the “United Bowman” of Philadelphia championship medal as the outstanding archer of the year.

She successfully defended her WNA title in 1938 in San Francisco, where she set records in Single-National (172-492), Double-National (143-939), Single Columbia (72-550), Double Columbia (144-1,088) and Double American (177-1,271). She was awarded the Dallion Medal in Gold and the Columbia Round Medal.

Jean was nominated as the “Maryland Ideal Outdoor Girl” in 1939. That year, as the national champion, she was cast in an RKO-Pathe film “Bow String” with Billie Burke at Pinehurst Golf Club in N.C. She played the sixth hole shooting her bow and arrow, while Burke played golf. The film was shown at many movie theaters and on TV several years after the filming.

Jean was inducted into the American Archer Hall of Fame in 1939.