Effa Louise Manley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania back in 1897 to John and Bertha. She graduated from Penn Central High School. After graduation is worked in the hat making business. She married Abe in 1935 after meeting him at a New York Yankees game. Abe owned and operated the Newark Eagles in Newark, New Jersey.
She took over the day-to-day operation of the team, arranged playing schedules, planned the team’s travel, managed and me the payroll, bought equipment, negotiated contracts and handled publicity and promotions. By the spring of 1981 her health had deteriorated to the point that she could no longer live in her apartment. She had colon cancer which progressed into the peritonitis after surgery. She never recovered and died in 1981. Don Tate wrote a children’s book, She Loved Baseball: The Ella Manley Story in 2010.
What you may not know about Effa is that in 2006, she posthumously became the first (and to date) the only woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, chosen by the Special Committee on Negro Leagues, that’s right while she could pass for a white woman her heritage was black.
NW Arkansas, come for a visit, stay for a lifetime.
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