[Howe’s Hunter]

Long story ... several years ago, while trying to research anything about Howe’s family, I found out his daughter Bettye had been a successful singer at the national level. Sang with Vaughn Monroe and was one of his Moon Maid background singers, and had also appeared on Broadway in the show “Promises, Promises,” which was a Burt Bacharach show. There is actually a Vaughn Monroe fan site, and part of that lists all the Moon Maids who ever sang with him, and a tribute section for those who have died. Under Bettye’s name was a story from someone who said he had met her as a stage hand on Broadway, they became friends for life and he knew her and her family quite well. It took almost three years of Facebook messaging and emails before finally getting to talk to the gentleman yesterday. And it had a bombshell ....

It started as soon as he answered the phone and said tell him about the cards, what are they? I went in to a pretty broad explanation of them, he stops me and asks what were they called, they called different cards different things, what are the ones you collect. T-206s. “Son-of-a-bitch, so it was real.” What was real? “The Honus Wagner he showed me the first time I visited Florida with Bettye.” I was completely silent.

Seems Bettye never got a drivers license. Any time she wanted to go home, she either flew or had someone drive her. In the summer of 1967, Ron drove her to Florida to spend a week with her parents. While there, he and Howe, who was a railroad engineer, hit it off. They talked about the family store, which was still standing at the time, and his baseball card collection, which he was very proud of. Ron didn’t know how many there were, but said there were several large boxes of cards, smaller than traditional baseball cards, but the one Howe was most proud of was a Honus Wagner. Got it as a kid for free and was now worth several hundred dollars if he tried to sell it. But he wasn’t going to, because it was his pride and joy. Ron held the card, looked at it, turned it over, saw Howe’s stamp on the back of it but didn’t really know anything about cards. He just took Howe’s word for it.

Two years later, Ron again returned to Gainesville to help Howe and Thelma move to a smaller place. He asked Howe about all the boxes of cards, and he said he had sold most of them as they downsized, but he kept his favorites, including the Wagner, which he pulled from an envelope and again showed Ron.

Several more visits in the following years led to the trip for Howe’s funeral in 1976. Howe’s wife Thelma told Bettye and Ron that she still had the envelope with Howe’s favorite cards in it, and they would go to Bettye someday.

Move forward four years, and they are Florida again for Thelma’s funeral. At that time, they rented a truck to take all of the family stuff back to New York for Bettye to sort through. But nowhere to be found was the envelope they had both seen so many times. No idea where it went.

It wasn’t until years later and Ron started hearing about this Honus Wagner card that he became curious, because he wondered if it was real. And it wasn’t until yesterday he found out. “I looked online when the internet became a thing to see what the Wagner card looked like. The front was the same, and Pittsburgh wasn’t spelled right, but the cards I’ve seen online had red print on the back. The one in Howe’s collection had blue print on the back and said Paramount or something.” “You mean Piedmont?” “Yes, that was it, Piedmont, most of the cards he showed me all said that, including the Wagner. Guess it was real, huh?”

Just stunned silence from me. I know the Wagner came mainly with the Sweet Caporal back, but have heard there a just a couple examples of the Piedmont back. Apparently, Howe had one. It disappeared sometime between 1976 and 1980, and Bettye was desperate to find it until her death in the late 80s. But she didn’t know what her mother must have done with it before her death, and who knows where it is now.

As I’ve always said, I know I won’t get them all. The big example of that will be his Honus.