George Elder

George Rezin Elder Jr. (March 10, 1921 – July 7, 2022) was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played one season in Major League Baseball, appearing in 41 games with the St. Louis Browns in 1949.

Early life Elder was born in Lebanon, Kentucky, in March 1921, the youngest of four children of George Rezin Elder Sr and Mary Ellen "Lilly" Elder. His mother died when George Jr. was one; the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in the 1920s, then a few years later to Chicago and finally to Los Angeles. He served as a Marine artilleryman in the Pacific theatre, including in the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Elder was a running back for the Fordham University football team. He considered attending the University of Notre Dame, where his brother Jack had been a running back. Elder, who ran the 100-yard dash in 9.9 seconds, said that he chose Fordham to avoid comparisons to his brother. Elder ended up playing for the freshman team in 1941 and the varsity team in 1942. In October 1942, he sustained a broken foot in a game against West Virginia University.

In the summer of 1943, Fordham shut down its football program. Elder went to Dartmouth College that fall as part of the V-12 Navy College Training Program. When he arrived at Dartmouth, he was described as dealing with some chronic injuries, and he elected to play baseball instead of football. After serving in the Marine Corps in World War II and seeing action at Iwo Jima, Elder was discharged and finished college at the University of California, Los Angeles,

Baseball career In 1947 and 1948, Elder appeared with the Toledo Mud Hens, a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Browns. He played for several other minor league teams Elder spent only one more season in professional baseball. He tallied 11 hits in 44 official at bats for a .250 batting average, with three doubles and two runs batted in. Elder played for the Wichita Indians, a Browns affiliate, in 1950, hitting .284 in 144 games. Before his death in 2022, he was one of only four living former St. Louis Browns players, along with Billy Hunter, Ed Mickelson, and Frank Saucier.

Personal life Elder spent his later years as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy and as a bailiff in a court in Santa Monica, California. He was later married to Helen Bennett. Elder was married a second time, in 1985, to Mary Ann. He turned 100 in March 2021.

Following the death of Eddie Robinson on October 4, 2021, Elder became the oldest living former major league baseball player. He died in Fruita, Colorado, on July 7, 2022, at the age of 101.