Baseball legend Babe Ruth's daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, has died, her family said Saturday in a Facebook post. She was 102.
According to The New York Times and Las Vegas Review-Journal, Stevens, whom Ruth adopted after his 1929 wedding to her mother, Claire Hodgson, had been living in an assisted-care home in Henderson, Nevada, a Las Vegas suburb. She died early Saturday "after a short illness," her family announced on a Babe Ruth tribute page.
"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," the post said. "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."
Stevens owned and operated Cranmore Mountain Lodge in Conway, New Hampshire, with first husband Richard Flanders until he died, then "became the proprietress and post mistress of the general store in Eaton Center ... where she met her second husband, Grant Meloon," her family said. After the pair divorced, Stevens married poultry farmer Brent Stevens and became "known throughout the Mount Washington Valley as 'the egg lady,'" her family said.
After she retired, Stevens "took on what she considered to be her most important role, that of Babe Ruth ambassador," according to her family.
"She worked tirelessly on behalf of Babe Ruth League Baseball and made countless appearances on behalf of her father around the country," the Stevens family said.
Stevens is survived by son Tom Stevens; daughter-in-law Anita Stevens; grandson Brent Stevens and his wife, Marie; granddaughter Amanda Dandro and her husband, Brian; great-granddaughters Lexi and Maddy Stevens; and great-grandsons Parker and Lukas Dandro, the family said.
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