Gladys Medalie Heldman (May 13, 1922 – June 22, 2003) was an American tennis player, promoter, manager and magazine publisher.
As a manager, she supported and represented Billie Jean King and eight other female tennis players: Rosie Casals, Judy Dalton, Julie Heldman, Kerry Melville, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kristy Pigeon, Nancy Richey, and Valerie Ziegenfuss.
Gladys Heldman died at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on June 22, 2003, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after she had been suffering from a terminal heart condition at age 81.
[3] Following the Pacific Southwest Championships's decision in September 1970 to pay male players eight times more money, with Gladys' organization, top players, including Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, and her daughter Julie, formed a separate women's tour.
[citation needed] Heldman sold her magazine to CBS Publications in 1975 and was out of tennis politics by the middle 1970s.