She was instrumental in persuading cigarette brand Virginia Slims to sponsor women's tennis in the 1970s and went on to serve on the board of their parent company Philip Morris in the 2000s.

[15] King's family in Long Beach attended the Church of the Brethren, where the minister was former athlete and two-time Olympic pole-vaulting champion Bob Richards.

[32]: 23 King first gained international recognition in 1961 when the Long Beach Tennis Patrons, the Century Club, and Harold Guiver raised $2,000 to send her to Wimbledon.

While a history major at Los Angeles State College, King made the decision to play full-time when businessman Robert Mitchell offered to pay her way to Australia so that she could train under the great Australian coach Mervyn Rose.

For the first time in 81 years, the annual convention of the United States Lawn Tennis Association overruled its ranking committee's recommendation to award her the sole U.S. No.

At the Federation Cup one week later in West Germany on clay, King won all four of her matches, including victories over DuPlooy, Ann Haydon-Jones, and Helga Niessen.

At the Australian Open, King defeated 17-year-old Evonne Goolagong in the second round 6–3, 6–1 and Ann Haydon-Jones in a three-set semi-final before losing to Margaret Court in a straight-sets final.

King finished the year with titles at the Pacific Southwest Open in Los Angeles, the Stockholm Indoors, and the Midland (Texas) Pro.

In Wightman Cup competition two weeks before Wimbledon but played at the All England Club, King defeated both Wade and Ann Haydon-Jones in straight sets.

Two weeks after Wimbledon, King won the Rothmans North of England Championships on grass in Hoylake, United Kingdom, beating Virginia Wade, Court, and Casals in the last three rounds.

King and Casals both defaulted at 6–6 in the final of the Pepsi Pacific Southwest Open in Los Angeles in September when their request to remove a lineswoman was denied, eventually resulting in the United States Lawn Tennis Association fining both players US$2,500.

When the tour returned to the United States, King did not win any of the three tournaments she played before the US Open, including a straight sets loss to Margaret Court in Newport.

Indianapolis was followed by five tournaments that King failed to win (Detroit, Boston, Chicago, Jacksonville, and the inaugural Family Circle Cup in Hilton Head, South Carolina).

as King said to author and photographer Lynn Gilbert in her book Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Have Shaped Our Times, "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match.

[90] Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Betty Stöve (president of the WTA) criticized King's decision because of Richards's unresolved and highly controversial status on the women's tennis tour.

At the clay court Family Circle Cup in late March, King played for the last time her long-time rival Nancy Richey Gunter in the first round.

[102] During the first half of 1979, King played only one event – doubles in the Federation Cup tie against Spain – because of major surgery to her left foot during December 1978.

Seeded seventh at Wimbledon, King defeated Hana Mandlíková in the fourth round before losing the last six games[104] of the quarterfinal match with fourth-seeded Tracy Austin 6–4, 6–7(5), 6–2.

King then upset third-seeded Tracy Austin in the quarterfinals 3–6, 6–4, 6–2 to become the oldest female semi-finalist at Wimbledon since Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers in 1920.

Before the start of the open era in 1968, King earned US$100 a week as a playground instructor and student at California State University, Los Angeles when not playing in major tennis tournaments.

In 1971, her husband, Larry King created the idea to form a nine player women's group with the financial backing of World Tennis magazine founder Gladys Heldman and the sponsorship of Virginia Slims chairman Joe Cullman.

King led player efforts to support the first professional women's tennis tour in the 1970s called the Virginia Slims, founded by Gladys Heldman and funded by Joseph Cullman of Philip Morris.

[135] King's husband Larry co-founded World Team Tennis in 1973 with Dennis Murphy, Jordan Kaiser, and Fred Barman and WTT began in 1974.

[136] King remained involved with World Team Tennis for decades, eventually sharing ownership with her ex-husband, her life partner Ilana Kloss and USTA.

[140] In December 2013, US President Barack Obama appointed King and openly gay ice hockey player Caitlin Cahow to represent the United States at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

[145][146] In October 2020, they became part of the ownership group of Angel City FC, a Los Angeles–based team set to start play in the National Women's Soccer League in 2022.

The champions play their weaknesses better....[189]Billie Jean and Larry King were engaged in fall of 1964 and married in Long Beach, California, on September 17, 1965.

The lawsuit caused Billie Jean to lose an estimated $2 million in endorsements and forced her to prolong her tennis career to pay attorneys.

[155] In December 1981, a court order stipulated that Barnett leave the house and that her threats to publish private correspondence between her and King in exchange for money came close to extortion.

[203] But in a bizarre twist of fate, a few months later in March 1983, the house that had been contested was destroyed during a series of freak storms that lashed the southern California coastline.