King was born in Long Beach, California, into a conservative Methodist family, the daughter of Betty (nee Jerman), a housewife, and Bill Moffitt, a firefighter. Billie Jean's family was athletic. Her mother excelled at swimming, her father played basketball, baseball and ran track. Her younger brother, Randy Moffitt, became a Major League Baseball pitcher, pitching for 12 years in the major leagues for the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and Toronto Blue Jays.

In 1982, King was 38 years old and the twelfth-seed at Wimbledon. In her third round match with Tanya Harford of South Africa, King was down 7-5, 5-4 (40-0) before saving three match points to win the second set 7-6(2) and then the third set 6-3. King said in her post-match press conference, "I can't recall the previous time I have been so close to defeat and won. When I was down 4-5 and love-40, I told myself, 'You have been here 21 years, so use that experience and hang on.'" In the fourth round, King upset sixth-seeded Australian Wendy Turnbull in straight sets. King then upset third-seeded Tracy Austin in the quarterfinals 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to become the oldest female semifinalist at Wimbledon since Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers in 1920. This was King's first career victory over Austin after five defeats and reversed the result of their 1979 Wimbledon quarterfinal. King said in her post-match press conference, "Today, I looked at the scoreboard when I was 2-0 in the third set and the '2' seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. In 1979, when I was up 2-0 at the same stage, I was tired and didn't have anything left. But today I felt so much better and was great mentally." Two days later in the semifinals, which was King's 250th career match at Wimbledon in singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles, the second-seeded Chris Evert defeated King on her fifth match point 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3. King was down a set and 2-1 in the second set before winning five consecutive games to even the match. King explained that she actually lost the match in the first set by failing to convert break points at 15-40 in the second and fourth games.  She reached the semifinals in her final appearance at Wimbledon, losing to Andrea Jaeger 6-1, 6-1 after beating Kathy Jordan in the quarterfinals, seventh-seeded Wendy Turnbull in the fourth round, and Rosemary Casals, her longtime doubles partner, in the third round. Jaeger claims that she was highly motivated to defeat King because King had defeated Turnbull, a favorite of Jaeger's, and because King refused a towel from an attendant just before her match with Jaeger, explaining, "I'm not going to sweat in this match."  King became the oldest WTA player to win a singles tournament when she won the Edgbaston Cup grass court tournament in Birmingham at 39 years, 7 months and 23 days after a straight-sets victory in the final against Alycia Moulton. The final official singles match of King's career was a second round loss to Catherine Tanvier at the 1983 Australian Open.

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Did she play doubles during this time period at all?