Thelma Griffith Haynes

Born Thelma Mae Robertson to Scottish parents in Montréal, Québec, she was the niece of Clark Griffith, a former star pitcher who became manager (1912–20) and then principal owner and president of the Washington Senators (1920 until his death in 1955). The Senators relocated to Minneapolis–Saint Paul in the autumn of 1960 and have been known as the Minnesota Twins since 1961.

Haynes' father, James Robertson, was a Canadian minor league baseball player who died in 1922, leaving behind a widow and seven young children. Clark Griffith's wife, Anne ("Addie"), James Robertson's sister, took Thelma and eldest son Calvin Robertson into her Washington, D.C., home, and although Thelma and Calvin were never formally adopted, both assumed the Griffith surname. Their mother and siblings also relocated from Montréal to the Washington suburb of Takoma Park. Calvin Griffith was groomed to succeed his uncle, who was childless, as the Senators' owner, president and de facto general manager.

In October 1955, Clark Griffith died at age 85, leaving his 52 percent majority interest in the Senators evenly split between Calvin and Thelma.

Thelma wed a former Washington pitcher, Joe Haynes of the Chicago White Sox, in 1941.