Julia (Ruth) Stevens

Julia (Ruth) Stevens (7 Jul 1916 - 9 Mar 2019) was the daughter of Frank Hodgson and Claire Merritt. Julia was adopted by Babe Ruth on October 30, 1930. Babe had married her mother Claire the previous year.

Biography

From AP, March 9, 2019:

Julia Ruth Stevens, the last surviving daughter of Hall of Fame baseball slugger Babe Ruth and a decades-long champion of his legacy, has died at age 102, her family has announced. Her family said Stevens died Saturday morning at an assisted living facility in Henderson, Nevada, after a short illness.
"Julia was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother who lived a wonderful, full life during the 102 years that she was with us," her family said in a statement posted on Babe Ruth Central's Facebook page.

From the New York Times, March 10, 2019:

Mrs. Stevens’s first husband, Richard Flanders, who died in 1949, operated a New Hampshire ski lodge. She later operated a general store in Eaton Center, N.H. Her marriage to her second husband, Grant Meloon, ended in divorce. She operated a New Hampshire poultry farm with her third husband, Brent Stevens, to whom she was married for 49 years, and later worked in retail managerial jobs and occasionally received small amounts of money from companies that used Ruth’s image.
In addition to her son, from her third marriage, Mrs. Stevens is survived by two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

References

SOURCE: Leavy, Jane; "Being Babe Ruth's Daughter". Retrieved from: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7367918/being-babe-ruth-daughter
SOURCE:"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K7MC-Y4H : 13 March 2018), Julia Ruth in household of Claire Ruth, Assembly District 9, Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 31-786, sheet 6B, line 49, family 153, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2642
SOURCE: “Julia Ruth Stevens, The Babe’s Babe.” Sports Marketing Report, December 1, 2007. Retrieved from:
https://www.psacard.com/articles/articleview/6640/julia-ruth-steven...
SOURCE: “Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth's last surviving daughter, dies at 102.” Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball...
SOURCE: “Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth’s Daughter, Dies at 102.” Retrieved from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/obituaries/julia-ruth-stevens-de...
SOURCE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/197437710/julia-stevens

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More ....

Daughter of Babe and Claire Ruth (nee Merritt). Her biological father, Frank Bishop Hodgson, abandoned her and her mother shortly after her birth.

Julia Ruth Stevens, the last surviving child of baseball icon Babe Ruth, has died at the age of 102, her family said Saturday evening.

Stevens died in her sleep overnight at a nursing home in Henderson, Nev., her only child, Tom Stevens, told the Globe.

“She was the last authority on Babe the man,” Stevens said in a phone interview Saturday night from his home in Nevada.

Stevens was the elder of Ruth’s two adopted daughters. She born on July 17, 1916 while her father was in the middle of his career with the Red Sox.

Babe Ruth played the first six seasons of his storied career in Boston. In 1919, Sox owner Harry Frazee famously sold his contract to the New York Yankees. The move set in motion one of the most famous rivalries in sports history.

Ruth was a championship pitcher for the Red Sox. But after joining the Yankees, the Sox suffered an 86-year championship drought that spawned a superstition known as “The Curse of the Bambino.”

His mother did not like the infamous phrase, Tom Stevens said.

“There was no such thing as ‘The Curse,’” he said. “It was just clever construct.”

Her friend, Joe Brill of Quincy, said she had a ready answer whenever asked about ‘The Curse.’

“‘Daddy loved baseball. He’d never put a curse on a baseball team,’” Brill recalled her saying.

Stevens loved the Red Sox and “was thrilled when they won the World Series,” Brill said.

The Stevens family announced Julia Ruth Stevens’ death in a Facebook post on Saturday night.

“Julia was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother who lived a wonderful, full life during the 102 years that she was with us. As the daughter of Babe Ruth, she had many amazing experiences, which she was pleased to share with eager reporters and fans alike.

“Until the very end, she was very proud to call him “Daddy” and she particularly loved recalling events from 1934 when she went on a “round the world” tour with her parents. The tour began with a series of 15 exhibition baseball games played in Japan,” the family said.

Brill said he first met Stevens when she visited Quincy in 2003 for the Babe Ruth World Series. She was offered a ride to the field in a limousine, but turned it down, saying she preferred to ride with someone who could “talk baseball,” Brill said.

He picked her up her hotel and the pair hit it off, he said.

“We became real good friends,” Brill said.

He traveled with Stevens to many baseball appearances, including Fenway Park. Her last appearance there was on July 9, 2016, when she threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game to celebrate her 100th birthday.

Stevens would have been 103 years old in July, Brill said.

Mark Matanes, the state commissioner of Babe Ruth Baseball in Massachusetts, said Stevens was supportive of the league.

“She was always stopping by and telling stories,” Matanes said, noting Stevens only slowed down about a year ago. “Her mind was sharp as a tack.”

Stevens was always friendly and warm, especially around children, Matanes said.

“The children loved her,” he said.

“It was all about the kids for Julia and continuing her father’s name,” Brill added.

Julia Ruth Stevens had a true love of baseball. And she rooted for the home team, wherever she was, her son said.

She was threw out the first pitch of the last game played at Yankee Stadium in 2008, Tom Stevens said.

“I know she liked the attention,” Tom Stevens said.

Stevens’s final resting spot will be in New England.

She lived for many years in Conway, N.H., where she and her first husband ran Cranmore Mountain Lodge in the 1940s. After his premature death, she became the “post mistress” of a general store in Eaton Center, N.H., her family wrote on Facebook.

She later married Brent Stevens, a local poultry farmer. “For many years, she was known throughout the Mount Washington Valley as “the egg lady,” according to the Facebook post.

Julia will be laid to rest in Conway, alongside her late husband, Brent.

The burial will take place once the ground thaws, Tom Stevens said, around the start of the baseball season.

• “Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth’s last surviving child, dies at 102” Boston Globe, March 10, 2019.
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 11 2019, 10:33:25 UTC