by Browne, Lois
“But after that it was downhill all the way,” she says, and Baker put softball and baseball behind her for good.
Husband Maury died just a few years after she left the League. With a nine-year-old daughter to support, Mary returned to work full-time, as western Canada’s first radio sports news director. Later she started work in a curling rink. She eventually became its manager and remained there until her retirement.
Arnold Bauer, now a widower, still lives in South Bend. He keeps in touch with former Blue Sox by telephone and mail.
Marge Callaghan (Maxwell) is in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her sister Helen Callaghan (St. Aubin) lives in Lompoc, California. Kelly Candaele, one of Helen’s sons, helped to spark renewed interest in the League during the 1980s when he co-produced a half-hour video documentary on the All-American that has been shown on national public television.
Faye Dancer left the League after 1950, at the age of 25, the victim of a herniated disk aggravated by her baseball career. She trained in electronics and also ran her own business for a few years, all in Santa Monica, California, where she still works and see old friends. She and Pepper Paire and other former League players recently played parts in a television situation comedy about former ball players holding a reunion.
Judy Dusanko moved to Saskatchewan with her husband when she left the All-American. She took up amateur softball once again and her team won the western Canadian championships. Basketball was the sport she pursued during the winter. Eventually, she and her husband escaped the Canadian winters by moving to Arizona, where they live today.
Thelma “Tiby” Eisen worked in California’s telecommunications industry for over 30 years. She was fortunate enough to join a growing company and became one of the first women to work with its installation crews. She invested in the firm and now lives in Palm Desert, California.
Dorothy Ferguson (Key) and her husband Don remained in Rockford, and they still live in the first house they bought after their marriage. They have grandchildren, and they continue to operate a home maintenance business. “Dottie” also helps out at the Dixie Cream Donut Shop, where fans periodically drop by to recall old times.
Dorothy “Snooky” Harrell (Doyle) played her last game in the League in 1952 and then went to Phoenix to play softball. Inspired by other players who decided to attend college, she became a physical education instructor. She owns a house in Los Angeles County, paid for by her baseball earnings, but she lives in Cathedral City, California next door to Dorothy Kamenshek.
Irene “Choo Choo” Hickson still lives in Racine, home of the Belles. She remained with the Racine team until it folded in 1950 and then ran a restaurant called the Home Plate, for a number of years.
Chaperon Dorothy Hunter stayed in Grand Rapids, Michigan – the city that had been her home for ten years – after the League folded. She and her Chicks have been friends ever since. At one point, Hunter returned to her home town of Winnipeg, but there wasn’t enough of her former life to keep her there. At the urging of her friends from the League, Hunter has resettled in Grand Rapids, and her Chicks, she says today, “look after me like I was their grandmother.”
Lillian Jackson lives in Arizona. She played with the Parischy Bloomer Girls, a Chicago League team, for four years after she left the All-American, and worked full-time. She took up swimming as well as golf, and still plays the game in Arizona.
Marilyn Jenkins, first the Grand Rapids bat girl and later their catcher, is still in her home town. After her baseball career ended, Jenkins became an estate agent and built up a business for herself. She recently unearthed a large cache of old photos about the League in the estate of a local businessman. The photos have been donated to the League’s archives in South Bend.
Christine Jewett (Beckett) has retired, with her husband, to the tiny Saskatchewan community of Stewart Valley. Like the other Saskatchewan players, she looks forward to reunions and keeps in touch with her former teammates.
Betsy Jochum quit the League in 1948 when they attempted to trade her away from South Bend. Using her earnings, she returned to Cincinnati to get a college education and became a physical education teacher until her retirement.
Arleene Johnson (Noga) returned to Regina, Saskatchewan, after the 1948 season and married. Johnson returned to curling and still plays. She lives with her second husband, not far from several children and grandchildren. She has been active in setting up an All-American exhibit in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, which recently inducted all players from the province who played in the League.
Daisy Junor and her husband Dave are retired now. They spend winters in Arizona and return to Saskatchewan each spring.
Dorothy Kamenshek, slowed down by a back injury, quit the League in 1951 to go to Marquette University. She studied to be a physical therapist and eventually pursued a career in health administration. She lives in Cathedral City, California, and she and ex-teammate Snooky Doyle regularly take a run out to Palm Desert to visit Tiby Eisen.
Sophie Kurys played softball in Chicago and Phoenix for a few years after she left the League in 1950. Eventually she went into business in Racine, and lived there until 1972 when she moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Kurys continued working for a time; now she is retired. She golfs with neighbor Joanne Winter and with Nicky Fox and goes to all the reunions.
Millie Lundahl, the Peaches’ chaperon, is still in Rockford, Illinois, busier than ever.
Elizabeth “Lib” Mahon, who had teaching credentials when recruited from her South Carolina home, went back to South Bend after she retired from the game. It was intended as a stop-gap measure, but she remained until her retirement. Mahon, Harold and Jochum regularly get together, visiting each other’s homes, and help keep the League archives in good shape.
Helen “Nicky” Nicol (Fox) didn’t return to her home province of Alberta after she quit the League in 1953. She settled in Racine and later moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she works at a local golf course and regularly meets for a game with other former League players.
Lavonne “Pepper” Paire (Davis) played amateur softball and bowled in California after she left the League in 1953. She also worked at Hughes Aircraft and raised three children. In 1963, Paire suffered a serious injury to her back when she had a disastrous fall. Slowed, but undaunted, she lives today in Van Nuys, California. Paire has acted as consultant on the 1992 movie about the All-American, A League of Their Own.
Mary Rountree left the League in 1952 to go to medical school. She became a doctor, eventually specializing in anesthesia. She settled in Coral Gables, Florida, where she still lives.
Doris Satterfield has always been “grateful for the opportunity to get out of a small town and come here and live a life that made me very happy.” After she left the League, Satterfield went back to nursing. She now lives, retired, on the outskirts of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Dorothy Schroeder lives in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, with her twin brother. She still works, and she recently moved into a new house that they designed and built.
Betty Tucker spent five years in the Chicago League after her contentious departure from the All-American. She also went back to school, and then worked in a manufacturing plant for 16 years. During her spare time she took up golf and bowling, but expanded her activities when she moved to Tucson, Arizona, to get away from the snow. Today she hikes, camps and travels whenever she can.
Joanne Winter left the League in 1950 when the Racine Belles folded, spent a year with the Chicago League, then became a professional golfer. She recently finished writing her memoirs and lives in Phoenix, next door to ex-Belle Sophie Kurys.
Connie Wisniewski retired from the League after the 1952 season because “I’d got a good job at General Motors and I didn’t want to give it up.” She played softball with the company team for a couple of years, although they wouldn’t let her pitch, “because I had been a professional. You know, just to be fair to the other players.” After 28 years, in which she had worked her way up to inspe
ctor, Wisniewski retired to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she golfs, visits friends and goes to all the League reunions.
Alma “Gabby” Ziegler returned to Los Angeles and became a court reporter, eventually working for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. For her, “softball can’t hold a candle to baseball,” and so she never played again, although she did umpire some games. Golf became the important sport in her life, and it still is. She lives now in San Luis Obispo, California, where she “golfs, delivers Meals on Wheels and socializes.”
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943-1954
Kenosha Comets
1943-51
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Racine Belles
1943-50
Racine, Wisconsin
Rockford Peaches
1943-54
Rockford, Illinois
South Bend Blue Sox
1943-54
South Bend, Indiana
Milwaukee Chicks
1944
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Minneapolis Millerettes
1944
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Fort Wayne Daisies
1945-54
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Grand Rapids Chicks
1945-54
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Muskegon Lassies
1946-50
Muskegon, Michigan
Peoria Redwings
1946-51
Peoria, Illinois
Chicago Colleens
1948
Chicago, Illinois
Springfield Sallies
1948
Springfield, Illinois
Battle Creek Belles
1951-52
Battle Creek, Michigan
Kalamazoo Lassies
1950-54
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Muskegon Belles
1953
Muskegon, Michigan
AAGPBL Champions
The League champion or pennant winner was the team that topped the standings at the end of the regular season. The play-off champion was the team that won the post season play-offs.
League Champions
Play-Off Champions
1943
Racine Belles (1st half)
Kenosha Comets (2nd half)
Racine Belles
1944
Kenosha Comets (1st half)
Milwaukee Chicks (2nd half)
Milwaukee Chicks
1945
Rockford Peaches
Rockford Peaches
1946
Racine Belles
Racine Belles
1947
Muskegon Lassies
Muskegon Lassies
1948
Grand Rapids Chicks (1st half)
Racine Belles (2nd half)
Rockford Peaches
1949
Rockford Peaches
Rockford Peaches
1950
Rockford Peaches
Rockford Peaches
1951
South Bend Blue Sox
South Bend Blue Sox
1952
Fort Wayne Daisies
South Bend Blue Sox
1953
Fort Wayne Daisies
Grand Rapids Chicks
1954
Fort Wayne Daisies
Kalamazoo Lassies
AAGPBL Batting Champions
1943
Gladys “Terrie” Davis
.332
1944
Betsy Jochum
.296
1945
Mary Crews
Helen Callaghan
.319
.299
1946
Dorothy Kamenshek
.316
1947
Dorothy Kamenshek
.306
1948
Audrey Wagner
.312
1949
Jean Faut
Doris Sams
.291
.279
1950
Betty Foss
.346
1951
Betty Foss
.368
1952
Joanne Weaver
.344
1953
Joanne Weaver
.346
1954
Joanne Weaver
.429
About the Author
Hi. I hope you have enjoyed Girls of Summer and that you have a sense that you met the women who played professional baseball in the American Midwest for more than a decade. Many of those who appear in the book have now passed on. Because of the renewed recognition that came to them late in life, you can find more information about them on the Internet. You can also visit my Girls of Summer page at intheirownleague.wordpress.com and sign up for my blog. I’m dipping into the research I did on the League and sharing what I find.
You can also connect with me online at:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/loislmb
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/loislmb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/loislmb
Acknowledgments
When I first heard about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, I was a researcher at CTV’s public affairs program, W5. At my suggestion, the program covered a reunion that former League players were holding in Saskatchewan.
Viewers loved it, and it was from my work as researcher on that piece that I had the chance to write this book. Since then, everyone I’ve spoken to about the League has been encouraging and interested in the book’s progress.
I would like to thank: my friends and colleagues at CTV’s W5, particularly Pam Bertrand, for the great job she did producing the segment on the All-American League reunion; Stan and Nancy Colbert of HarperCollins Canada who saw the W5 piece and liked it enough to suggest I write a book; to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League who made time for me, with special thanks to Arleene Johnson Noga in Regina, Fran Janssen in South Bend, Indiana, Dorothy Ferguson Key in Rockford, Illinois, Marilyn Jenkins and Earlene “Beans” Risinger in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Helen Nicol Fox in Phoenix, Arizona; and to all the others who were helpful: Lou Arnold, Mary Baker, Arnold Bauer, Marge Callaghan, Faye Dancer, Judy Dusanko, Thelma “Tiby” Eisen, Madeline English, Merrie Fidler, Don Key, Harold Greiner, Dorothy Harrell Doyle, Irene Hickson, Dorothy Hunter, Lillian Jackson, Christine Jewett Beckett, Betsy Jochum, Daisy and Dave Junor, Dorothy Kamenshek, Sohie Kurys, Fred Leo, Mildred Lundahl, Elizabeth Mahon, Ruby Knezovich Martz, Lucille Moore, Carl Orwant, Lavone “Pepper” Davis, Janet Perkins, Mary Rountree, Doris Satterfield, Yolands, Schick, Dorothy Schroeder, Ken Sells, Mary Shastal, Twila Shively, Betty Tucker, Alice Udall (daughter of Bill Allington), Sue Waddell, Joanne Winter, Connie Wisniewski, Alma “Gabby” Ziegler and Jethro Kyle, curator of the Sports Research Department, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana; and to my friends who encouraged me, with special thanks to Johanna Brand and Lin Gibson whose support and good advice were invaluable to me.