Thanks to a Lexington baseball fan, a former Cincinnati Red Stocking is remembered
As David Shannon freely admits, he can be persistent.
Because of his persistence, Theodore “Huck” Conover now has a marked grave at the Lexington Cemetery.
Shannon is the owner of Shannon Lamp Service in Lexington and a baseball history buff. About four years ago, he discovered that Conover, a professional baseball player who pitched one game for the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1889, was buried in an unmarked grave in Lexington.
From that the “Gone But Not Forgotten: MLB Unmarked Graves Project” was born. Spearheaded by Shannon, the group now has over 80 members and on Tuesday unveiled its first marker, that of Conover, who pitched professionally in the late 1890s before his death on July 27, 1910 at the age of 43.
“That was really incredible,” said Edie McClellan, a descendant of the Conover family. “We’re so happy and so proud that we have a professional baseball player in the family who is being recognized this way.”
It started with Shannon, who as a hobby visits the gravesites of former Major League Baseball players.
“My wife thinks I’m out of my mind, going to cemeteries and filming graves of people I don’t know,” Shannon said.
The Ancestry website includes a section listing where former MLB players are buried by state, city and cemetery. From that, Shannon found that Conover’s grave was unmarked in the Lexington Cemetery. At first he was disappointed. Then the more he thought about it, he decided he wanted to do something about it.
He reached out to friend and former Reds’ shortstop Darrel Chaney, who offered his help.
“He got sentimental about it,” Shannon said of Chaney, who lives in Atlanta. “He said there shouldn’t be anybody, especially a Major League Baseball player, who is without a grave marker.”
A cousin who curates a couple of cemeteries in Northern Kentucky helped Shannon get in touch with a relative of the Conover family. Huck Conover never married or had children, but his sister, Minerva, was the second great grandmother of McClellan, who lives in Versailles.
What did McClellan think when she was first contacted by Shannon?
“I was kind of amazed,” she said. “For David to take this on, who’s not related, a big history fan and big baseball fan, who has been very passionate about it. I think that’s wonderful. I’m so glad he was able to track us down to do it.”
Shannon organized “Gone But Not Forgotten” as a private Facebook group that now has over 80 members. Chaney helped organize donors for the project, which included current Reds owner Bob Castellini. He also received help from Thomas Bucher, another baseball history buff, who is a licensed funeral director in Tennessee.
“I really wasn’t too familiar with (Conover), but David was able to enlighten me on him,” Bucher said.
Conover pitched for Lexington teams in the Blue Grass League from 1892 through 1896. He also pitched in the Pennsylvania Iron and Oil League, helping his team to the 1894 pennant.
His one game with the Red Stockings came on May 26, 1889 when he pitched two innings to record a save in a Cincinnati victory.
“Playing professional baseball counts for a lot,” McClellan said. “It’s more than most people.”
And it’s a feat that Shannon believes should be recognized and remembered. Among those attending Tuesday’s ceremony were former Reds’ infielder Doug Flynn and Dr. William Greenhill of Union, who represented the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum by wearing a Reds uniform from 1869.
The “Gone But Not Forgotten” group isn’t done, either. The group has a second ceremony in the works. It has both family permission and cemetery permission to unveil a marker in Northern Kentucky for another former Red. Shannon said he wasn’t ready yet to release the name.
“It means a whole lot,” Bucher said, “especially the fact that myself, when we go somewhere we try to go to a cemetery and locate a deceased ballplayer to pay our respects. The fact that Mr. Conover has something here to permanently mark his grave, it means a whole lot.”
And what would Conover think of his marker?
Said Shannon, “I don’t think he’d know what to say. I think he’d be speechless.”
