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Frances "Bunty"[1] Stephens (married name Frances Stephens Smith or Frances Smith Stephens; 26 July 1924[2] – 23 July 1978[3][non-primary source needed][4]) was an English amateur golfer.[1]
Stephens was born in Lancashire where her father Fred was club professional at Bootle Golf Club.[1] She faced discrimination from golf administrators because of his working class occupation.[5] In 1955 she married Roy Smith, a Scottish Airlines pilot killed in a 1957 crash in Libya.[1][4][6] They had one daughter.[1] Stephens curtailed her playing career to raise her daughter, but subsequently was active in golf administration and developing junior golf.[4] She was made OBE for "services to Ladies Golf" in the 1977 New Year Honours,[7] a year before her death from cancer.[4]
Stephens' home club was Royal Birkdale.[8] She won the British Ladies Amateur in 1949 and 1954, and was runner-up in 1951 and 1952. She played in all six Curtis Cups from 1950 to 1960, and was non-playing captain of the Great Britain and Ireland team in 1962 and 1972.[9] Her final-hole victories over Polly Riley in the 1956 and 1958 tournaments secured a win and a draw respectively for the British team, the first time it retained the cup.[1] In the United States she was "hardly known",[1] though she finished tied for 6th in the 1949 U.S. Women's Open. She was also a non-playing captain of the British team in the Vagliano Trophy.[4]
Herbert Warren Wind called her a "slight, quiet, entirely undramatic girl" and an outstanding clutch player.[1] Enid Wilson said she had "a very frail physique but ... the temperament of a tigress".[10] Her swing had a pronounced hiatus at the top,[1][11] which Wind called "most unimpressive", although Henry Cotton said she had "one of the prettiest swings in the game".[12]
- Curtis Cup (representing Great Britain & Ireland): 1950, 1952 (winners), 1954, 1956 (winners), 1958 (tied), 1960, 1962 (non-playing captain), 1972 (non-playing captain)
- Vagliano Trophy (representing Great Britain & Ireland): 1947 (winners), 1948 (winners), 1949 (winners), 1953 (winners), 1955 (winners), 1959 (winners), 1971 (non-playing captain, winners)
- Commonwealth Trophy (representing Great Britain): 1959 (winners), 1963 (winners)
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