A native of Toronto, Lea McBeigh, used five pin bowling to establish her own identity. For years, Leas was known as "Tommy McBeigh’s wife", as Tommy held the limelight first as an accomplished boxer and later as the trainer of Canadian heavyweight champion George Chuvalo.

Lea was a social bowler at Dean Ford’s Beach Alleys, and in 1952, Dean recommended she join the Ladies City Major League. Lea progressed quickly and by 1955, she was the eastern Toronto representative at the Sportsmen’s Show, eventually losing out to Hamilton’s Vera Ward.

In 1960, Lea won the singles championship in the Ladies Major League and her 2760 score established a new ten game record, breaking the previous mark by 50 pins that was set by one of last year’s inductees, Helen Richards. Lea continued her record setting play in 1961, and was eastern Canada’s representative at the national championships held that year in St. Catharines. With 5 pin founder Tommy Ryan in attendance, Lea fought back from a 107 pin deficit at the halfway point to win the title by a mere 42 pins over Dot Annis of Vancouver. Lea bowled on three national teams and, in 1964, in Regina and 1966 in Calgary, she was a gold medal winner.