Perry, Thomas K. 1952-

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PERRY, Thomas K. 1952-

(Thomas Kennedy Perry)

PERSONAL: Born February 11, 1952, in Anderson, SC; son of Thomas Edsel (businessman) and Betty Jean (an administrator; maiden name, Whitten) Perry; married Donna Marie Adams (an administrator), May 16, 1981; children: Meghan Marie. Education: Wake Forest University, B.A., 1974, M.A., 1977. Politics: Independent. Religion: Protestant. Hobbies and other interests: Golf, woodworking, reading, historical research.

ADDRESSES: Home—2120 Woodland Way, Newberry, SC 29108.

CAREER: Velux-Greenwood Corp., Greenwood, SC, purchasing and personnel manager, 1979–80; Kendall Company, Pelzer, SC, training manager, 1981–83; corporate office, Boston, MA, assistant to labor relations director, 1983–85; American Fiber and Finishing Co., Newberry, SC, assistant personnel manager, 1985–91, personnel manager, 1991–. Piedmont Technical College, Greenwood, adjunct faculty member and member of board of visitors, 1993–94. Member of board of elders, Aveleigh Presbyterian Church, Newberry, 1991–96.

MEMBER: Society for American Baseball Research, 1984–.

WRITINGS:

Textile League Baseball: South Carolina's Mill Teams, 1880–1955, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 1993.

Shoeless Joe (two-act play), produced at Furman University (Greenville, SC), 1995.

(With Mac C. Kirkpatrick) The Southern Textile Basketball Tournament: A History, 1921–1997, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 1997.

Contributor to Sandlapper magazine (Lexington, SC).

SIDELIGHTS: Thomas K. Perry was born in South Carolina and, like his father before him, forged his career in the textile industry. With a master's degree in English and a passion for writing, Perry researched and wrote Textile League Baseball: South Carolina's Mill Teams, 1880–1955, a history of the teams of textile workers whose games he attended as a child with his grandfather. During playing season, mill owners often closed down operations entirely on Saturdays, allowing the entire community to enjoy the games.

The league peaked around 1950 with 120 teams and more than 2,000 players. Some team members graduated to the majors, including Chicago White Sox infielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Tommy Lasorda, who went on to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers. The popularity of the leagues declined with a lack of financial support, social change, and the advent of television. Perry comments on notable games, the evolution of playing conditions, and other players who went on to become well known in other sports and fields. "This book is a testament to a bit of American history that was almost lost forever," wrote D. Scott McKinstry in Oldtyme Baseball News.

In The Southern Textile Basketball Tournament: A History, 1921–1997, written with Mac C. Kirkpatrick, Perry studies another sport enjoyed by Greenville South Carolina mill workers. The teams began after Lawrence Peter Hollis, director of the Monahan Mill Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), returned from New York with a basketball and play instructions acquired from the game's inventor, James Naismith. The various mill teams came together each year for a one-week tournament, and the popularity of the game grew as mill baseball all but disappeared. Beginning in 1959, when the annual tournament expanded to allow basketball teams outside the mills, clubs came from across the Southeast, with one traveling from as far as Chicago.

The volume lists the rosters of the teams that played in all the tournaments, as well as prominent players. It also notes members of the Southern Textile Athletic Hall of Fame. As Jimmy Cornelison wrote in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, "It was all about a game, having a little fun, perhaps taking home some bragging rights. But mainly in years to come, it was about having a memory or two."

Perry told CA: "Textile League Baseball emerged after ten years of research and writing, a tribute to the heritage of the cotton mill workers of South Carolina. 'For those who played,' reads the simple dedication, those who played so well yet were so close to being forgotten, their deeds unremembered by the very game which prides itself on rich, meticulous history.

"The old players talked with glee about their exploits on the diamond. Given the responsibility to preserve their heritage, I dared not let them down. The early mornings, late nights, and long hours no longer mattered, for they had given me much more than I could every repay. They believed, thank God, and that was all that mattered.

Much of what I knew and loved growing up in the mill villages of the Carolinas came from listening to the stories people would tell. Only later would I see that their stories were the narrative of my own life, flavored with a depth and a richness unavailable in mere personal memories. Letting them tell their stories once more within the body of my work is all that I ask as a writer."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Greenville News, August 18, 1993, Mike Hembree, "Book Surveys Textile Leagues," review of Textile League Baseball: South Carolina's Mill Teams, 1880–1955.

Oldtyme Baseball News, Volume 5, issue 3, D. Scott McKinstry, review of Textile League Baseball, p. 24.

State (Columbia, SC), July 25, 1993, William W. Starr, "Workers' Play: Perry Tracks Palmetto's Mill Baseball Teams, Players."

Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), March 8, 1998, Jimmy Cornelison, review of The Southern Textile Basketball Tournament: A History, 1921–1997, p. B3.

Winston-Salem Journal, October 10, 1993, Tom Gossett, review of Textile League Baseball, p. C6.