WILLIAM BELL

1955 (18 Apr 1869 – 11 Jul 1955)

LOCAL BASEBALL HERO DIES AT 86

William (Billy) Bell, 86, a retired employee of Mt. Vernon Milling Co., the head of five generations and a baseball pitcher in the early days of the diamond sport in Mt. Vernon of Tri-State reputation, died at 10:55 o'clock Monday night.

Mr. Bell was a native of Mt. Vernon, a son of James Bell and Katherine Plankenhorn Bell.  His father died while the late deceased was an infant and he was reared by his mother and his stepfather, Frank Cooper.

Rev. Ernest Hopper, pastor of Church of the Nazarene, conducted the funeral service at 2:30 p.m. Thursday in the Weisinger chapel.  Burial was in Bellefontaine cemetery.

Mr. Bell's wife died many years ago.  He is survived by a son, Merrill Bell, Mt. Vernon; two daughters, Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Charles John, both of Mt. Vernon; a stepson, Thomas Causey, Evansville; 12 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren and on great-great-grandchild.

"Billy" Bell had the reputation of being one of the first curve ball baseball pitchers in the Tri-State area.  Players of by-gone days, always said he had an assortment of the widest curves of any pitcher they ever saw when he was a member of the famed Mt. Vernon Red Jacket Pumps, a local baseball team.

His interest in the diamond sport never dimmed and until the infirmities of his advanced age incapacitated him he attend all local baseball games.

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Originally submitted by Betty Sellers