Wyonella Smith (1921–2020)
Wyonella Smith, my paternal grandmother’s youngest sister, passed away in her adopted hometown of Chicago, IL this past Thanksgiving at the age of 99. When you put big #’s like that on your life scoreboard, many of your peers, friends and contemporaries aren’t around to share a story, a testimony or to speak to the attributes of your life from a personal perspective. Add COVID-19 to the mix, and I’m unsure if the type of memorial that’s deserved will ever take place.
With that, I feel a duty to celebrate Aunty Wynie here on Social Media. You know, to memorialize her…2020 style!
Wyonella Hicks was born in Oxford, NC in 1921. She is a graduate of North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University). As a professional, she worked for Abe Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters and in the Public Information Office at the City of Chicago Department of Aging. She also worked at The Pittsburgh Courier where she met the love of her life, Wendell Smith. They married in 1949.
Wendell was a sportswriter at The Pittsburgh Courier, The Chicago Herald American and The Chicago Sun-Times becoming one of the first Black members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). He also became one of the country’s leading boxing writers covering the careers of many, including Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano. He was a ghost writer for books by Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Ernie Banks. He later included broadcast television on his resume becoming a sports anchor at WBBM-TV and WGN Chicago.
Immortalized in the film 42, he was notably a key figure in convincing the Brooklyn Dodgers’ General Manager Branch Rickey to afford Jackie Robinson the opportunity to break into Major League Baseball. He traveled and roomed with Robinson throughout his rookie year in the big leagues. Aunty Wynie was so proud of her husband — who preceded her in death on their 23rd wedding anniversary back in 1972 — ensuring that the world remembered his contributions to sport and society through his determined written word.
In 1994, along with my Mom and Dad, I accompanied Aunty Wynie to Cooperstown, NY for Uncle Wendell’s induction to the writer’s wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. She proudly accepted the honor and delivered a dignified speech.
One morning in 2012, I was on a train heading to Manhattan reading the New York Times when I came across a front-page article about the friendship between Aunty Wynie and Mary Veeck, widow of former Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck. As had happened so many times from the stories she told and the pictures and memorabilia she shared, once again Aunty Wynie blew my mind!
Aunty Wynie embodied class and elegance. She was an advisor and friend to many in the fraternity of Baseball, the city of Chicago, as well as her family, friends and anyone fortunate to share in conversation with her. When my grandmother, Julia Hicks Henderson (her older sister) passed in 2008, she proudly exclaimed that now; we were all her children. As of last week, she is now our Angel. Rest In Peace, Queen. I’ll miss you.
James J. Henderson III
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