LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lavonne “Pepper” Paire-Davis, a star of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s and an inspiration for the movie “A League of Their Own,” has died. She was 88.
Her son William Davis tells The Associated Press that Paire-Davis died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Paire-Davis was a model for the character played by Geena Davis and served as a consultant on the 1992 film.
In 1944, she joined the women’s baseball league, created in fear that World War II would interrupt Major League Baseball, and played for 10 seasons. She was a catcher and shortstop, and helped her teams win five championships. She chronicled her baseball adventures in the 2009 book “Dirt in the Skirt.”
She’s survived by two sons and a daughter.
