| Interment Location | Visited | |
|---|---|---|
| Cooperstown, NY | November 9, 2024 |
No inductees of the National Baseball Hall of Fame are buried in Cooperstown, New York. However, that does not mean the community is devoid of baseball’s dead. After Major League Baseball’s first Black umpire, Emmett Ashford, died in 1980, his widow, Virginia, sent her husband’s ashes to the Hall of Fame. The organization then purchased multiple lots in the lakefront Lakewood Cemetery, about half a mile from the hall. Ashford’s brass urn was buried there and was later joined by the remains of Kenneth D. Smith, a sportswriter who became president of the hall of fame in 1963. Their side-by-side markers sit near the road, Route 31.
Ashford’s rise in the umpiring ranks was initially meteoric. His 1980 obituary in the Orange County Register relays his path. “Umpiring was Ashford’s hobby as he worked on the playgrounds and sandlots of Los Angeles, then expanded to women’s softball and the college level,” it recalls of the one-time postal worker. “He received a professional tryout after his immediate success in the old Pacific Eight Conference. He became the first black umpire in organized baseball in 1951 when he worked the Southwest International League, then followed the Arizona-Texas League in 1952, and the Western-International in 1953 and Pacific Coast League in 1954 where he was the Umpire-In-Chief the last three years” of his twelve-year tenure. In November 1955, Ashford appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx’s television game show, You Bet Your Life. The host introduced Ashford to the audience as “one of the most respected and capable umpires in the Pacific Coast League.” He then asked him about speculation that he would be elevated to the Majors the following year. “Well gosh, Groucho,” Ashford replied, “there’ve been rumors, but — and quite a lot of smoke — but I haven’t heard anything definite, and course it’s my ambition, like everybody else.” It took until 1966 — another decade — for Ashford’s ambition to be actualized.
In September 1965, Ashford’s contract was sold by the Pacific Coast League to the American League. “That was the last thing I remembered for the next several days,” Emmett later said of this long-awaited achievement. He made his Major League debut on April 11, 1966, as the Washington Senators hosted the Cleveland Indians for the season opener. In the Majors, Ashford continued to umpire games with the zeal that he had long made his trademark (the end of his epitaph reads, “He added drama to baseball with his zestful, flamboyant style”). Fancy cufflinks and pressed suits were as crucial to Ashford’s repertoire as were loud calls and animated body movements. “I didn’t go to umpiring school because they weren’t taking blacks in those days,” he said, “so I evolved my own system.” To what degree Ashford’s eccentricity mixed with prejudice to forestall his ascendance to the Majors for so long probably cannot be accurately determined. Regardless, he made the most of his five seasons in the big leagues, even while sometimes encountering racist hostility. His MLB umpiring career ended with a crescendo with the 1970 World Series. By then, the 55-year-old had already reached the mandatory retirement age for American League umpires, but he managed to skirt the rule by one season in order to qualify for a pension. In 1971 he became a public relations advisor for MLB, working under Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn. Ashford held that position until his death from a heart attack in March 1980 at age 65.
Fast Facts
Born: November 23, 1914 in Los Angeles, California
Spouses: Willa Gene Fort Ashford (m. 1937-); Virginia Ashford (m. -1980)
Military Service: U.S. Navy
Died: March 1, 1980 in Marina del Rey, California
Cause of Death: Heart Attack
Age: 65
Interment: Lakewood Cemetery, Cooperstown, New York
"He was my special assistant for nearly a decade, and never could I imagine anyone having a more dedicated or dearer friend. He was a beautiful person, full of love for everyone -- totally without [malice] or ill will. As the first black umpire in the major leagues his magnanimous nature was sternly tested. But he was unshaken and uncomplaining, remaining the colorful, lovely personality he was all his life[.] He set a standard for decency that will remain a model for all of us."
- Bowie Kuhn
in a statement released after Emmett Ashford's death in March 1980
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
Armour, Mark. “Emmett Ashford.” Society for American Baseball Research. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Emmett-Ashford/.
Baseball Reference. “Cleveland Indians vs Washington Senators Box Score: April 11, 1966.” Accessed July 31, 2025. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS2/WS2196604110.shtml.
Casella, Paul. “Remembering Emmett Ashford, first Black umpire in AL/NL history.” MLB.com. February 8, 2025. https://www.mlb.com/news/umpire-emmett-ashford-broke-many-barriers.
Detroit Free Press. “AL’s first black ump dies.” March 3, 1980. Page 42. https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-emmett-ashford-obitua/17632074/.
Internet Archive. “‘You Bet Your Life’ (1955) – Secret Word: Book.” Accessed July 31, 2025. https://archive.org/details/youBetYourLife1955-SecretWordBook.
Referee. “EMMETT ASHFORD – A RARE PERSONALITY.” September 1992. https://www.referee.com/the-entertainer/.
Sawyer, Carl. “He’s Gone, But Not Forgotten.” Orange County Register. March 1980. From Chapman University Digital Commons. https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/emmett_ashford/4/.