Michele Skalicky talks with David Jerome, author of Preacher Roe: The Life of a Professional Great from the Ozarks.
Skalicky: Why did you decide to tell preacher Rose story?
Jerome: Well, as I was doing the research for my book on Bill Virdon, when I was wrapping things up in West Plains as far as all my interviews and research and everything in that area, I knew who Preacher Roe was as far as his being a baseball — Major League Baseball pitcher. But I really didn't know much about him. And then, as I like I said, when I was doing my research for Bill Virden's book, I got to know more and more about Preacher Roe. And then I made arrangements to meet with his son, Elwin Junior, over in Bella Vista, Arkansas on November 15th, 2021, him and his wife Kay, and their lovely home in Bella Vista. And I interviewed him, my wife and I did. And then unfortunately, Elwin passed away 30 days later. And then I was able to meet his son, Tom, and his daughter in law, Sondra, over in West Plains. And we became friends. And that interview process started in earnest in about February of '23. And so, that was about the same time Bill Virden's book came out. And at that point, I just got involved in Preacher Roe from that point on in February of '23 after doing a lot of background research from the time I met with Elwin over in Bella Vista in '21, that 15 months, I did a lot of research. And then the book was published, Preacher's book was published in March of '26. Just this year.
Skalicky: When was Preacher Roe born and when did he die?
Jerome: Preacher was born on February 26th, 1916, in Ash Flat, Arkansas. And he passed away on November 9th, 2008, at the age of 92. It's kind of funny about that time frame is because, when preacher attended college down in Harding, Arkansas, Harding University — College at that time, in Searcy, Arkansas, he was kind of sensitive about being older than the other teammates down there on the basketball team and baseball team. And so, he kind of shaved a couple years off of his age. And, but the funny thing about that is that stayed with him throughout his Major League Baseball career. They always reported him as being two years younger than what he really was. But he was born in '16, not either 1917 or 1918, like a lot of sportswriters wrote.
Skalicky: Interesting. And his name wasn't Preacher. You mentioned Elwin Jr. So, his name was Elwin.
Jerome: His name was Elwin Charles Roe.
Skalicky: How did he get the nickname Preacher?
Jerome: Well, when the family moved from Ash Flat about six months after he was born, they moved over to little community called Wild Cherry. And that's — if you know where Viola, Arkansas is and Mountain Home, Arkansas, probably Mountain Home, Arkansas is the town that people are most familiar with. It's southeast of there. It's about nine miles south of Viola. And at the end of the war, the Great War, which became World War I, his uncle Bathis, his dad's only brother, had returned from the war. And during that time, before that, Preacher had become enamored, he was only about three years old. He was a very shy young boy. He became enamored with the Methodist minister and his wife, and he just kind of followed them around. He went out and rode around with him and on the, I guess, buckboard or whatever. And his uncle, Matt Bathis, came home. He says, what's your name? And preacher didn't say anything. And he says, I'll give you a nickel if you tell me your name. Well, a nickel could have got him some stick candy at the local store. So, he jumped all over that. He said, my name is Preacher. And that stuck with him the rest of his life.
Skalicky: Wow. And it's a good name for a baseball player. Let's talk about his career because he was quite successful as a player. Who did Preacher play for, and what were some of the highlights of his career?
Jerome: Well, preacher was signed by the Saint Louis Cardinals in July of 1938 after completing his college career down at Searcy, Arkansas at Harding University. He was signed in late July by Frank Rickey, Branch Rickey, who was the general manager of the Saint Louis Cardinals at the time. He signed him at the First National Bank in West Plains, Missouri. And then they ushered him off to join the Cardinals who were on an East Coast swing at that time, but he didn't pitch until August 22nd of 1938 in Saint Louis against the visiting Cincinnati Reds. He only pitched that one time for the Cardinals. The problem, and this is kind of an important thing, because that's the only game he ever pitched in for the Saint Louis Cardinals after they signed him, because Lon Warneke was also a pitcher from Arkansas, and he was known as the Arkansas Hummingbird, and he took it upon himself. He said, Preacher, nobody worth anything coming out of Arkansas — you have to chew tobacco. So, he taught him how to chew tobacco just before that game. And people who begin chewing tobacco tend to get a little sick and lightheaded. Well, that's what happened to Preacher. And sure enough, he got called in by Frankie Frisch, the manager of the Cardinals, to go in and pitch a couple of innings. Well, he got a lot of runs scored against him. I think his ERA was like 13.5. And so, from that point on they allowed him to go back to Arkansas and finish up the semester and get married to Mozee, his wife and, but he went to the farm system for the Cardinals for the next five seasons.
Skalicky: Okay. Who else did he play for?
Jerome: He was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Frankie Frisch had become the manager of the Pirates. But he noticed that Preacher had done really well in the Double-A and Triple-A clubs in the Saint Louis farm system. And so, he had been scouting him or had somebody scouting him. And he wanted him to join him in Pittsburgh. And so, he went to Pittsburgh and played for the Pirates, uh, starting in j'44, the '44 season. Preacher did a phenomenal job in Columbus, Ohio with a Triple-A affiliate of the Cardinals. So, the Cardinals had to either bring him up to Saint Louis at that point after five years in the minor leagues or trade him. And so, they traded him, and he went to the Pirates. He played with the Pirates through the '47 season, and there's a little bit of drama that took place in '46...at the end of the 47 season. Branch Rickey, who was now the general manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he's the one that had him signed with the Cardinals, initially decided he wanted him in Brooklyn to start the '48 season, and that's what happened. That's where he finished his career at the end of the '54 season was with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Skalicky: And Preacher never forgot his roots.
Jerome: Never.
Skalicky: How did he end up in West Plains? And I understand he ran a grocery store for the rest of his career.
Jerome: Yes, he did. At the end of — during the '51 season, his brother Roy was a school administrator, and Preacher also was a school teacher during the off season. He taught at Melbourne and Sydney. And then, and of course, he taught in Hardy, Arkansas. He was also a basketball coach, but he was a math teacher as well. But his brother Roy suggested because he had these two young boys, he had Elwin Jr and Tom, that the school system might be better for the boys in Missouri. And so, a lot of people from that part of Arkansas shopped in West Plains anyway. So, the Roe family was familiar with West Plains. So, at the end of the '51 season, actually in July of '51 when he was playing with the Dodgers that year, he had somebody buy a house for him. You know, he paid for it. But they picked out a house for him. And that's the house they moved into after the '51 season. And they lived there from that point on.
Skalicky: How did he go from a schoolteacher to running a store?
Roe: Well, Preacher never graduated from Hardy, but he had enough hours to be a teacher. And during the war, the war period of World War II, Arkansas was decimated as far as male teachers. And so, I think they made an allowance for him. And he was good at math. He was a smart man, and he tried to he had that country drawl and twang about him. He liked to do that, to kind of throw the reporters off their game by thinking he was just an old hick. But he was a very intelligent human being. And, but I think his math background and his just common sense background made him a good store proprietor. He bought the business. He never actually bought the building. I think he leased it. But on January 1st, 1955 is when he bought it right after he had announced his retirement from Major League Baseball. Him and his wife, Mozee, went grocery shopping on New Year's Day, January 1st, 1955, I think it was a Saturday. And she, she went out and got all the groceries and everything in her cart, and he was over there talking to the store owner, and Mozee pulls up with a grocery cart, getting ready to check out. And he said, just go ahead and keep pushing those outside. I just bought the store.
Skalicky: Oh, wow. I wonder what was going through her mind at that time?
Jerome: Well, I think they had been talking about the idea because she came from a family of grocery store owners.
Skalicky: Well, people are going to have to read your book to learn more. It sounds like a really interesting story. What are some of the things you hope people will remember about Preacher Roe after they read your book?
Jerome: I learned so much about Preacher doing the research and talking to some of the,his two boys and people that knew him when they were young people. Of course, the people that he knew back in the '50s are now in their 80s now. He coached Little League baseball in West Plains. He, he him and Tommy, his son, coached American League Legion ball together. I just want people to know about this man who is of high integrity, high moral standard and just an impeccable human being, very kind, very compassionate. A little story along that line is his future daughter in law, Sondra, who's still married to Tom, and she just celebrated her birthday this week, when her family moved to the West Plains area, her dad was just starting out in the asphalt business, and they didn't have any money, and they went to Preacher's grocery store, and he was pretty desperate. He said, I need to get some groceries for my family. And, but I'm going to have to charge them. And Preacher made no problem, no bones about it. He took care of them right then. And his name was Bob Sargent, Sondra's dad. And they became very, very good friends for the rest of their lives. And that's the kind of compassion that he exhibited to others. And it wasn't only the Sargent family, but it was other families in West Plains as well. And I want people to know what kind of a person he was.
Skalicky: Anything else that you want to tell us about the book and what we can expect from it?
Jerome: Well, there's a couple of things in there I don't think people realize. In February of 1946 when he was coaching girls basketball in a girls basketball tournament down in Evening Shade, Arkansas, he was coaching for Harding, a girls basketball team. And they went they were in the finals. And they, you know, Preacher was like any typical coach, you know, basketball coach, he would squat, squat down along the side of the court there and try to coach his girls. And if the ref made a bad call, he would let him know about it. And so, Preacher was no different in that regard. Well, I guess the ref got a little tired of hearing Preacher talk. And so, he finally went over there and he says, shut up. Well, Preacher thought he told him to stand up. And so, Preacher stood up, and the referee hit him right in the face with a fist and knocked him back. And there was about a four foot drop off from the level of the court. And there was a concrete drop, a walkway there, and he fell off over that and hit his head on a steel pipe, and it fractured his skull 4 to 5 inches. Well, there happened to be an emergency room doctor in the stands that...was able to give him an adrenaline shot to keep him — he was unconscious. He was unconscious for a long time. But he was able to make that ambulance ride down to Graves Hospital in Batesville, Arkansas. And so, that doctor saved his life in that regard. But also sitting in the stands was the county sheriff, and he arrested the referee for assault. And he had to post a $500 bond. Well, that was a lot of money in 1946. And so, he arrested him. But that affected his ability to pitch in the '46 and the '47 season. It wasn't until late in the '47 season that he was able to start coming back as a full-strength pitcher again, and I want, I wanted people to kind of know that. And that's really when he became a finesse pitcher, not really a hard throwing pitcher because he couldn't throw the fastball anymore because the people at the Mayo Clinic told him said, if you make really hard jerking motions because his brain became fused to the inside of his skull, that could break loose and you could bleed to death. And so, he had to become a finesse pitcher.
Skalicky: Wow, so, that shows a lot about him that he was able to pivot from that incident and then go on to continue to play. How can somebody get a hold of your book if they are listening and they would like to read it and learn more about Preacher Roe?
Jerome: Well, it's available on Amazon. The name of the book is Preacher Roe: The Life of a Professional Baseball Great from the Ozarks. And it's available on Amazon. I think Amazon has it for, I don't know what price is, $34 or something like that or if they want to track me down in the Springfield, Missouri area, they're more than welcome to get ahold of me and I'll be glad to, to provide them with one and sign it for them if they prefer, but it's basically through Amazon.
Skalicky: And I understand you have another book in the works. Just give us a brief overview of what's next.
Jerome: Well, as I was wrapping up the Preacher Roe book in '24, I met, I talked to a gentleman that used to be the executive director for the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Jerald Andrews, and he asked me what my next project was going to be, and I told him I didn't really give it much thought at that point, hadn't given it much thought. And he said, well, can I make a suggestion? And then he brought up Tom Hinkey. Tom Hinkey was a former Major League Baseball pitcher, primarily a closer, primarily a closing pitcher for the Texas Rangers, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Saint Louis Cardinals. And so, when I visited with Jerald in his office up in Bolivar, he gave me Tom's contact information. And so, I talked to Tom that afternoon, and my wife, Kathy and I made arrangements to meet with him and his wife, Kathy, in the Jefferson City area. They live in Taos, Missouri, just on the outskirts, eastern outskirts of Jefferson City. And we went up there in September and had about a 5 or 6 hour discussion with them. And I decided then and there that was going to be my next baseball project because all three of my subjects, Bill Virdon, Preacher Roe and Tom Hinkey, have so much in common. They are very humble individuals. They're very much underrated and underappreciated for their remarkable Major League Baseball careers. I think they were excellent role models for young people, both boys and girls. And I just am so proud of these three individuals. I mean, they're kind of a tough act to follow as far as humility and professionalism, work ethic, and they just have all that in common.
Skalicky: Well, thank you so much, David, for coming in and talking to me about your book. It's been fun.
Jerome: Michele. I've enjoyed it very much. Thank you so much for having me.
