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Pete's Hill's grave site found Found!
Pete's Hill's grave site found Found!
Nov 13, 2010
Pete's Hill's grave site found Found!
Sherlock Holmes couldn’t find it, Perry Mason couldn’t solve it, and not even the Undercover Brothers could solve the mystery of where Hall of Famer Pete Hill was buried.
This past summer, the award-winning PBS TV show “History Detectives,” devoted to exploring the complexities of historical mysteries, searching out the truths, myths and conundrums that connect local folklore and family legends failed in their valiant efforts. Moreover, City, County, State records in Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago, Indiana revealed nothing. Massive searches of newspaper obituaries revealed little. Funeral homes, cemeteries and interviews with family members yielded some leads. The best genealogist in the free world came up empty. However one man stands tall in his relentless pursuit for justice and the truth.
Not since Josh Gibson appeared up on the X-Files, have Negro League genealogists been more baffled. Along comes our very own Sam Spade with the detective skills of super sleuth Easy Rawlins, disguised as Jeremy Krock.
Taking the theme from the X-Files, “The truth is out there somewhere,” Krock succeeded where others failed. In his own words this is how he solved our greatest gravesite challenge.
“Saturday night (November 6th) after watching ‘Cadillac Record,’ the story of Chicago’s Chess Records, I started searching the internet to see where these great blues performers were buried. Most of them are in places we (NL researchers) have been – Burr Oak, Restvale, Lincoln, Mt. Glenwood, etc. One of the main characters, ‘Little Walter,’ was buried in a Roman Catholic Cemetery. I decided to refocus our attention on some other less obvious cemeteries. I found Pete Hill in the second south-side Catholic cemetery I inquired at.
John P. Hill is buried in an unmarked grave at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, in Grave 3, Lot 20, Block 10, Section 36. He was buried on December 28, 1951, after his body was received from Albany, New York, by a Charles Jackson. Pete’s son, Kenneth P. Hill, purchased three plots at this time. Kenneth was living at 54th and Michigan in the city. The other two plots have not been used and we know Kenneth is buried in Gary, Indiana. Pete Hill’s wife Gertrude is not buried at this cemetery as far as I could tell.
Thanks to all that have worked on this project. I am glad we finally been able to local Pete Hill’s final resting place. The shadow of the tragic events at Burr Oak has been hanging over us as we have all hoped and prayed his grave was not among the ones violated.”
This year Krock’s team has discovered burial sites for three Hall of Famers; Frank Grant, Sol White and now Pete Hill. With your donations we hope to honor and pay our respect to these immortals in 2011.
To date, we have funded the purchases for 19 gravesites, and expect installation of a headstone for Carroll ‘Dink’ Mothell, in Topeka, Kansas, next spring. To download a list of Krock’s detective work go to: http://www.larrylester42.com/assets/Krock-Gravemarker-Project.pdf
We welcome your tax-deductible donations in any amount to support this endeavor. You can send your contributions to the SABR office at:
Society for American Baseball Research
Attn: Negro Leagues Headstone Restoration Program
812 Huron Road Ste 719
Cleveland, OH 44115
Phone: (216) 575-0500 or (800) 969-7227
Or you can make an online donation at: http://store.sabr.org/sabrstore.cfm?a=dnt
Here you can earmark your donation to the general fund; “Negro Leagues Headstone Restoration Program” or for a specific player. A list of players in unmarked graves can be found at:
http://www.larrylester42.com/the-krock-watch/
The committee would like to THANK the following donors:
Adler, Peter
Anderson, David W.
Beisner, Robert
Bostwick, Ron
Bradshaw, Gary
Chorba, Robert
Cohen, Aaron
Connor, Brian
Connor, Matt
Conway, Donald
Cusac, Dorothy
David Kensinger and Associates
Dease, Mary
D'Egidio, Richard
Dellinger, William
Deskis, Susan
Distelhorst, Jim
Dodge, Michael
Donohoe, Marthalee
Douglas, Ernie
Edward T. Bowser Elementary School
Elch, Foster
Fredrickson, Kent
Frick, Bonita
Friends Of Rickwood Field
Fulton, John
Girdany, David
Gore, Phil
Gould, Steve
Grant, Robert
Griffiths, Bryan
Henson, Frank
Holst, Leann
Johnson, Dennis
Johnson, Janice
Jones, Derrick
Kenison, Doug
Kobritz, Jordan
Kressman, Allen
Kunkle, Penny
Lilly-Weber, Steven
Mahoney, Richard
May, Sally
McBrown, Lanny
Nelson, Rod
Overmyer, James
Parsons, Ken
Persigehl, Lori
Ponce, Felicia
Rayl, Susan
Raymo, Dick
Ross, Phillip
Schmit, Mary
Schmitz, Darrell
Shaiman, Steve
Shiner, Christopher
Tasker, John
Thornley, Stew
Vincent, Fay
Wiles, Tim
Williams, Mike
Worth, Fred
The Jerry Malloy Negro Leagues Conference Committee of Wayne Stivers, Tom Garrett, Ted Knorr, Leslie Heaphy, Stephanie Liscio, Michael Garvey, and Dick Clark welcome your additional support in this final tribute to the legends of Negro league baseball. As Dr. Krock has said, "They played in anonymity, and now they're anonymous in death."
Let’s correct this omission!
Larry Lester
NoirTech Research, Inc.
"An internet-based company"
P.O. Box 380146
Kansas City, MO 64138
816.358.0475 home/office
www.LarryLester42.com
"We are drowning in information . . . but starving for knowledge."
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