Thanks, everybody, your kind thoughts much appreciated and passed along to Mom. We went to the memorial service Saturday, then back to Uncle Ed's farm for a celebration of his long and wonderful life, the fruits of which were in abundant evidence in the beauty of the place and in his many children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other relatives and friends gathered there to remember him. How strange it was for me, who had been coming there since 1955, to be there without seeing him. I've always told people that the closest you could get to meeting Walter Johnson in person was a visit with Uncle Ed, a real chip off the old block if there ever was one. Ed had been a terrific ballplayer, too, playing with Easton and Norfolk in the Yankees organization. (He replaced Phil Rizzuto at shortstop for Norfolk when he moved up to Kansas City in 1940.) But he hated life on the road and in the minors generally and, after a bad leg injury, went back to the farm life he loved. Ed's passing leaves Mom as the last natural child of the first five HOF inductees, by the way. She's 89 and doing great, still taking care of her own home and her Westie, Bonnie.
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