Albie pearson biography

Albie Pearson, the baseball star who joined Marilyn during her final public appearance, has died aged 88, the Los Angeles Times reports.

He was born Albert Gregory Pearson in Alhambra, California in 1934, named after college football star Albie Booth. Pearson was born with spina bifida, and weighed just 100 pounds in the 9th grade. Nonetheless, he became an athletic star at high school, excelling in football, basketball, baseball, tennis and track and field.

While in his first semester at college, a psychology professor noted he seemed more interested in sports than studying. He dropped out in 1953, and was signed by the Boston Red Sox as a freelance amateur player. In 1955 he married high school sweetheart Helen, and they raised five daughters together.

Albie played in numerous minor league teams over the next few years, and was named Rookie of the Year by the American League in 1958. In 1961, he joined the original line-up of the Los Angeles Angels, and was nicknamed the ‘Littlest Angel’ due to his short stature (he was 5 ft. 5″ in height.) “I was the guy-who-never-made-it’s hero,” he recalled. “The blue-collar guy who made a couple hundred bucks a week would always root for me.”

On June 1st, 1962, the Angels played a charity game at Dodger Stadium, with Marilyn Monroe briefly joining them on the pitch to ask the crowd for donations to treat muscular dystrophy. It was her 36th birthday, and a turning point in more ways than one.

After catching a chill that evening, Marilyn called in sick to Twentieth Century-Fox the next morning. This was just the latest of her numerous absences, and she would be fired from Something’s Got to Give within days. Though no-one could have predicted it, Marilyn would never make another public appearance, dying from an overdose just two months later.

In a 2012 interview with the San Bernardino Sun, Albie remembered their only encounter with deep sadness.

“In the summer of 1962 there