Lakeland man lived a lie of baseball glory for decades

[Sinergy 3]

what a moron

The Associated Press

11:43 am, September 6, 2007

LAKELAND, Fla. - Everyone here knew Bill Henry as an old major league pitcher - at church, around the golf course and certainly at home.

Henry, 83, didn't like to boast, but he had stories. The boys at The 19th Hole lounge at the golf course where the 6-foot-2 lefty retired had to pry for nostalgia, but Henry knew his stuff - his appearance in the 1961 World Series with the Cincinnati Reds, the 1960 All-Star selection, the 16 years in the majors.

But it turns out this Bill Henry was not THE Bill Henry who played major league ball, and the tales he spun are quickly unraveling a week after his death following a heart attack.

The Henry who lived and died in Lakeland was never a major leaguer, while the former reliever by the same name is still alive and well in Texas - stunned someone could've assumed his identity for decades. The real pitcher, 79, learned of his impostor after The Associated Press distributed a short obituary about the other man's death, giving him credit for a major league career he never had. The death - and the bogus history - had originally been reported in The Ledger, the local newspaper.

"I really can't understand why a man would do something like that. To impress his family or his neighbors?" said the real pitcher.

The fake's family isn't exactly sure when the deception began.

His widow, Elizabeth Jean Henry, said the couple met more than two decades ago in Michigan. She said her future husband didn't mention right away that he was a former big leaguer, but she had no reason to doubt him when it later came up.

Elizabeth Henry said he didn't have any memorabilia aside from a few baseball cards - no rings, no trophies, no photos. She was his third wife and Henry had two children, but both are dead - and she didn't meet either.

She and his stepchildren still believe he played at least some level of minor league ball.

"He told me once he could hear his father when he was pitching a game," Elizabeth Henry said. "He didn't tell me what game, but he said he could hear his father in the stands calling his name. I don't think he lied about all that."

Henry and his wife moved here 19 years ago after he retired as a salesman, and he was a staple at the Sand Piper Golf and Country Club where the two lived. He met one of his closest friends there - a former semipro pitcher who also never doubted him.

Bob McHenry said he played for a team fielded by RCA several decades ago. The two even gave a biannual lecture called "Baseball, Humor and Society" at Florida Southern College, where McHenry was an adjunct professor.

McHenry had heard of the pitcher Bill Henry long before he met the fake.

"To me there were two relievers at that time - Joe Page for the Yankees and Bill Henry for the Cincinnati Reds," McHenry said. "It was about the early '50s that relieving became a big thing in the majors, and so I could accept Bill as that person."

"He knew the names," McHenry said. "He and I had a lot of opportunities to talk about people in the '40s, '50s, '60s. He knew his stuff."

Besides that, the real Bill Henry featured on the baseball cards looked just like the one in Lakeland. Besides having the same name, they were of similar age and both lanky left-handers.

"It's creepy striking - the nose, the face, the squinty eyes," said Jeanine Hill-Cole, the wife of Henry's stepson David Cole. "I mean, I'm still here looking at the picture we put in for his obituary, and you'd swear that it was the same man.

source and full story http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/2007...06008/1004/NEWS

Edited September 6, 2007 by Ionescu

[WifeOHunkyJohn 2]

I read a while back that another person stole the credit of a famous person and their family didn't know till their death. Seems that, before the days of google, a person's word was enough, even if that word was a lie.

Real `Itsy Bitsy'Songwriter Still Alive

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer

The man who co-wrote the song"Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"had the unsettling experience this week of reading his own obituary _ the result of an impostor who went through life claiming to be the author of the 1960s smash hit.

On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported on the death of a 68-year-old man named Paul Van Valkenburgh of Ormond Beach, Fla., who claimed to have written the song under the name Paul Vance. The story cited the man's wife as the source for that claim.

But the music industry's real Paul Vance, a 76-year-old man from Coral Springs, Fla., is alive and well, and says the other Paul Vance appears to have made the whole thing up.

The Paul Vance who wrote the songs _ and provided proof with royalty payments he is still receiving for the hit _ said he has been inundated with calls from people who think he died. An owner of racehorses, Vance said two of his horses were scratched from races Wednesday because people thought he had died.

"Do you know what it's like to have grandchildren calling you and say, `Grandpa, you're still alive?'"he said in a telephone interview from Coral Springs."This is not a game. I am who I am and I'm proud of who I am. But these phones don't stop with people calling thinking I'm dead."

Rose Leroux, the widow of the man who died, said she was surprised by the disclosure, and"kind of devastated."She said she had no reason to doubt that her husband _ who apparently had some sort of music career when he was younger _ was the writer of the famous tune.

She said her husband told her that he never got any royalties because he sold the rights when he was young, around 19. She said that by the time they met almost 40 years ago, he was making his living as a salesman. He later became a painting contractor.

"If this other man says he did it then my husband's a liar, or he's a liar,"Leroux said.

The living Paul Vance estimated he has made several million dollars from the song, which was recorded by 16-year-old teenidol Brian Hyland, surged to No. 1 on the Billboard charts in August 1960 and has been pop culture staple ever since.

The song _ about a bashful young woman in a skimpy bathing suit _ has been used in such movies as"Sister Act 2"and"Revenge of the Nerds II"and was more recently revived in a yogurt commercial.

"It's a money machine,"Vance said.

Vance said his first hit was"Catch a Falling Star,"recorded by Perry Como, and he went on to write numerous million-sellers for Como, Johnny Mathis and others.

To prove he is the real songwriter, Vance provided royalty statements showing dozens of payments for the tune sent to his address in Westbury, N.Y., where he lived before moving to Florida. Jim Steinblatt, an official with the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers, confirmed that royalty checks for the song were being mailed to Vance in Westbury.

Steinblatt also said he knows Vance personally and had visited him at his Westbury home last year. He said he had never heard of the man who died and took credit for composing the song.

Vance said he has no animosity toward the impostor or his wife.

Vance's songwriting partner, Lee Pockriss, who shares credit on"Itsy Bitsy ...', lives in Bridgewater, Conn., and is recovering from a stroke. His wife, Sonya, said her husband's writing partner is the living Paul Vance, and she had never heard of the Paul Vance from Ormond Beach.

Leroux said she wished the other Paul Vance had never spoken up.

"It's such a long time ago. To have it come out now, I'm kind of devastated,"she said."If this man is getting the royalties why wouldn't he be happy? The more you stir this up the more you'll smell. Paul can't hurt him now _ he's dead. And we're not going after him for the royalties."

___

Associated Press Writers Travis Reed in Orlando, Fla., and Verena Dobnik in New York contributed to this report.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Ban Hammer 13,333]

i'm seeing a common theme between those two stories - in both cases the one claiming to be someone they are not just happen to be.......a salesman!

Edited September 6, 2007 by charlesandnessa

[mawilson 2,133]

what a moron

Why moron? He fooled everybody and managed to keep the lies going until the day he died!

Fair play to him!

[AtlantiCat 0]

You know, as long as they weren't making money off of it or really stealing identities, I don't think you can complain too much. Some people just want a little glory for themselves and if they get it in this understated way, I don't think there's any real harm in it.

[WifeOHunkyJohn 2]

You know, as long as they weren't making money off of it or really stealing identities, I don't think you can complain too much. Some people just want a little glory for themselves and if they get it in this understated way, I don't think there's any real harm in it.

So what if it was someone taking credit for something you had done? Wouldn't you even feel a tiny bit miffed?

[mawilson 2,133]

You know, as long as they weren't making money off of it or really stealing identities, I don't think you can complain too much. Some people just want a little glory for themselves and if they get it in this understated way, I don't think there's any real harm in it.

So what if it was someone taking credit for something you had done? Wouldn't you even feel a tiny bit miffed?

Not if that someone lived in Chopf##kville, Fla.

[AtlantiCat 0]

You know, as long as they weren't making money off of it or really stealing identities, I don't think you can complain too much. Some people just want a little glory for themselves and if they get it in this understated way, I don't think there's any real harm in it.

So what if it was someone taking credit for something you had done? Wouldn't you even feel a tiny bit miffed?

Not if it was some dork in Bumblefunk, USA who was nothing more than a minor hometown hero. I mean, everybody else on the planet knew better except for a few thousand folk living nearby. I've not done anything so famous but if it were me, I'd probably just find it amusing. Too many people take things too seriously these days.

[Sister Fracas 5]

just strange...

[Sinergy 3]

and bc of what he did, his wife will get the ridicule on it. bc shes still alive and went with it or belived it hersself.

[mawilson 2,133]

and bc of what he did, his wife will get the ridicule on it. bc shes still alive and went with it or belived it hersself.

So who's the moron again?

[Sinergy 3]

and bc of what he did, his wife will get the ridicule on it. bc shes still alive and went with it or belived it hersself.

So who's the moron again?

Both of them and the town of lakeland

[Jason-Sasha 1]

What he did was morally wrong, but it didnt hurt anyone. Sure his wife will have to live with knowing her dead husband lied to everyone. But he probably actually helped the legacy of the real pitcher. Strange.

[almaty 19]

You know, as long as they weren't making money off of it or really stealing identities, I don't think you can complain too much. Some people just want a little glory for themselves and if they get it in this understated way, I don't think there's any real harm in it.

So what if it was someone taking credit for something you had done? Wouldn't you even feel a tiny bit miffed?

Not if that someone lived in Chopf##kville, Fla.

i pissed myself..chopf##kville. fla..brother MA, you are indeed a right thinking type of guy

[Sinergy 3]

You know, as long as they weren't making money off of it or really stealing identities, I don't think you can complain too much. Some people just want a little glory for themselves and if they get it in this understated way, I don't think there's any real harm in it.

So what if it was someone taking credit for something you had done? Wouldn't you even feel a tiny bit miffed?

Not if that someone lived in Chopf##kville, Fla.

i pissed myself..chopf##kville. fla..brother MA, you are indeed a right thinking type of guy

that was indeed good