Fundingsland: Grave of former Negro League player Saul Davis gets new marker in Minot
From Kim Fundingsland at the Minot Daily News on December 7, 2019:
A man who said he was once a doorman for Chicago gangster Al Capone, wore a grass skirt on the baseball diamond as a player-manager for a traveling team and was a personal friend of diamond legend Willie Mays, has a new grave marker.
Saul Davis, who made his mark as a shortstop in the Negro League from 1921-1931 and with other teams thereafter, was laid to rest in Minot’s Rosehill Cemetery in 1994. His grave was marked with a simple nameplate and date, going virtually unnoticed for many years.
When Terry Bohn of Mandan, who has long been involved in baseball research, learned that Davis’ final resting place was all but forgotten, he determined that some recognition was in order.
“He called asking me if Saul Davis had a headstone,” said Eileen Bean, Rosehill Cemetery. “He said he’d have funds to put in a nicer stone.”
“I learned there was some unmarked graves of Negro Leagues players in Chicago that received some markers from the Negro League Baseball Grave Marker Project,” said Bohn. “I wanted to do that for Saul’s grave at Rosehill and put the word out for donations.”
Read the full article here: https://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2019/12/grave-of-former-negro-league-player-saul-davis-gets-new-marker-in-minots-rosehill-cemetery/
Originally published: December 10, 2019. Last Updated: December 10, 2019.