Mildred LeFevers Obit, January 19, 2009

 

Mildred Deal LeFevers Obit, January 19, 2009

 

Could have been anybody in Burke County North Carolina,

She was a member of a Methodist church.

She enjoyed watching ACC basketball,

Gardening, sewing, and going

To the mountains with her family.

She lived to be 86 and is survived by

Children, grandchildren, and great ones, too.

She was preceded in death

By her husband Newland and her brother.

 

What is does not tell

Is that she looked good enough

On that June night of 1941

A month before her nineteenth birthday

To gain the attention of Alabama Pitts

Who tried to cut in on a late night dance

With her future husband Newland

At a “roadside tavern” in Valdese,

Or that Newland responded

With a different kind of cut

That left Pitts bleeding out

From an artery in his shoulder.

 

And it didn’t tell

That Newland would escape

And hide out from a manhunt

After Pitts expired

At the Valdese Hospital,

Or that Pitts was the most famous

Convict ballplayer to emerge

From Sing Sing Prison

Seven years before,

That he played football briefly

For the Philadelphia Eagles

And minor league baseball

For the Albany Senators

Before he came

To the Depression Era south

To play independent league

Appropriately known

As outlaw ball.

 

And it didn’t tell

That he married a local girl

And coached the Valdese

High school team

And had a young daughter.

Young enough to only

Know him as a story.

 

And it didn’t explain

Why he was out tomcatting

After he’d played a semipro

Game against a House of David

Team, traveling Hassidic Jews

Or that his funeral

Would draw thousands

From all over an America

That was about to go to war.

 

None of this was mentioned

Because Mildred was just

A pretty eighteen-year-old

Out with the boyfriend

She’d marry and have a life

With for 63 years

And that evening was over

Just as quick as the flash

Of Newland LeFever’s knife.