Babe Ruth
returned to South Boston in 1929 to attend the wake and funeral of his wife.
Helen after years of estrangement from her husband put their daughter Dorothy in
a boarding school run by the Catholic Church then proceeded to live with a
Dentist in Watertown, Ma. It was there that her life was cut short tragically
by a fire that consumed her apartment.
By 1929,
Ruth had become quite famous. A crowd of several hundred had gathered at West
Fourth St. where Helen was waked at her Woodford family home. Ruth came at
midnight hoping to avoid them but to no avail. He was said to have cried uncontrollably
at her bier.
The Woodford
family protested the release of Dorothy to Ruth. But a judge after hearing
evidence that in no way implicated him in Helen’s death discharged her to his
care. Dorothy barely remembered her father. She returned to New York with him
and within 3 months of Helen’s death, Ruth married his long time companion
Claire Hodgson. Eighteen months later he adopted Claire’s daughter Julia has his own
and now made his family complete. Picture of Babe Ruth and Claire on his
wedding day.
More on the
Babe on the next post
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