Bernard Malamud
will immortalize the shooting incident in his novel, "The Natural", which
will later become a very successful movie starring Robert Redford as
Roy Hobbs.
(Click on image to enlarge) |
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Eddie Waitkus during
his rehab
at Clearwater, Florida |
Waitkus was taken to Illinois
Masonic Hospital with a bullet in his chest. The bullet had punctured his
lung and lodged next to his spine and was near his heart. He was given two
transfusions but surgeons were afraid to remove the bullet because of its
location.
As it turned out, Waitkus will have
to have four operations before he is able to go to Clearwater, Florida for
rehabilitation. It is while he is in rehabilitation that he will meet Carol
Webel.
In 1951 Eddie and Carol will walk
down the isle together. They will have two children, Veronica ("Ronnie")
born is 1953 and now living in Marshfield, Mass., and Edward Jr. ("Ted"),
born in 1956 an Attorney living in Boulder, Colorado.

(click on image to enlarge) |
Eddie Waitkus
and
Carol Webel
in 1951 Wedding Photo |
Unfortunately, the marriage didn't
last and the couple were divorced in the early 1960's.
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