Beatrice Parrott ( Arbour; December 2, 1920 – June 10, 2019) was an

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Uni ...

player. Listed at , , she batted and threw right handed.Beatrice Parrott
''All-American Girls Professional Baseball League''. Retrieved on March 25, 2019. Born in

Gaspé, Quebec Gaspé is a city at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region of eastern Quebec in Canada. Gaspé is located about northeast of Quebec City, and east of Rimouski. As of the 2021 Canadian Census, the city had ...

,Beatrice Arbour Parrott obituary
''Hathaway Funerals''. Retrieved on June 19, 2019. Arbour was raised in

Somerset, Massachusetts Somerset is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,303 at the 2020 census. It is the birthplace and hometown of Clifford Milburn Holland (1883–1924), the chief engineer and namesake of the Holland Tunnel ...

, where she attended Somerset High School before there were sports teams for girls.Somerset Hall of Fame: Players, coaches, teams set for induction
''The Herald News''. Posted on March 28, 2011. Retrieved on March 27, 2017. Nevertheless, Arbour acquired some experience while playing with the American Legion Baseball boys' team in her hometown.Heaphy, Leslie A.; May, Mel Anthony (2006). ''Encyclopedia of women and baseball''. McFarland & Company. In 1937, a group of girls, including Arbour, went before the Student Council and requested a girls' basketball league be formed. As a result, the first girls league was started with 50 ladies participating on five intramural teams. Arbour was recognized as the Most Athletic female of the Class of 1938. In addition to her athletic accomplishments at school, Arbour played for the St. Patrick's Parish

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

team, which competed against teams from as far away as

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. In 1947, she joined the AAGPBL as a

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists who ...

for the

Racine Belles The Racine Belles were one of the original teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League playing from through out of Racine, Wisconsin. The Belles won the league's first championship. The team played its home games at Horlick Fi ...

, which was one of the teams depicted in the 1992 film ''

A League of Their Own ''A League of Their Own'' is a 1992 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Penny Marshall that tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The film stars Tom Hanks, Geena Dav ...

''. While playing for Racine, Arbour had a number of different jobs during the off-season to pay her bills, including an internship in an

apple orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

. After baseball, Arbour married Donald M. Parrott, who died in 2010. They had four children together; three boys and a girl.Obituaries in January 2010
''The Herald News''. Retrieved on March 27, 2017. Arbour drove a school bus for 19 years.Madden, W. C. (2005). ''The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary'' .McFarland & Company. Arbour is part of the AAGPBL permanent display at the

Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-re ...

Cooperstown, New York Cooperstown is a village in and county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in the C ...

, which opened in 1988. The display is dedicated to the entire league rather than any individual figure. In 2011, Arbour was inducted into the Somerset High School Athletic Hall of Fame. A year later, Arbour’s granddaughter, Jenny Parrott, honored her by publishing a book about her life entitled ''Famed Girl Athlete Now a Milkman: the Biography of Beatrice Arbour Parrott.''Roots Web - Finding our roots together
''Ancestry.com.'' Retrieved on March 27, 2017. Arbour moved later to

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

, where she died in 2019 at the age of 98.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arbour, Beatrice 1920 births 2019 deaths All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Softball players from Massachusetts Baseball people from Quebec Baseball shortstops Baseball players from Fall River, Massachusetts People from Gaspé, Quebec People from Somerset, Massachusetts Racine Belles (1943–1950) players Canadian emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women