Harmon Killebrew’s father died in February 1953

The Feb. 26 edition of The Argus-Observer reported that Harmon Killebrew, 59, father of the 17-year-old youth who would eventually become one of the best hitters in baseball, had died after a short illness.

His son Harmon was a junior at Payette High School that year.

“A contract painter by trade, Mr. Killebrew had lived in the Payette area for 32 years,” the story noted.

In June of 1954, when the younger Harmon was signed to a major league contract just out of high school, another son, Eugene of New Plymouth, told the newspaper that the father went out of his way to foster the boy’s talent, going so far as to do the boy’s chores at home so that he could extend his hours on the practice field.

For that and other sport stories of the time, search for Harmon Killebrew or “To Beat Vale” posted on Aug. 5, 2007 at this link:

http://rememberingtheargus.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2007-09-20T07%3A37%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=50