James Melvin "Bat" Battiste

James Melvin “Bat” Battiste - 91, passed from this life to eternity in heaven on September 24, 2011. He was born August 20, 1920, at home on the farm in St. Elmo, AL to David Theodore and Flossie Older Battiste. He graduated from Murphy High School in 1938. He served in the Army Air Signal Corps during World War II, in the Panama Canal Zone. He was employed by the Gulf Mobile and Ohio Railroad as a teletype and telephone maintainer and rose to the rank of communications microwave tower survey engineer, retiring in 1982 after 36 years of service. “Bat” was the organizer of the first Little League, Babe Ruth League, Connie Mack and Advanced Babe Ruth programs in Mobile. He saw the program grow from 60 boys in 1959 to over 18,000 by 1993. He was the Southeastern Regional Babe Ruth League Director for over 10 years. He was inducted into the Mobile Youth Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 and the International Babe Ruth Hall of Fame in the fall of 1993. He maintained the Battiste Citrus and Pecan farm for over 26 years. He was a tireless champion of the common man, goodwill, integrity and fair play and will be greatly missed by all of his family and friends. He was an active member of Dauphin Way Baptist church. He was preceded in death by his parents and brothers, Marion and Merle. He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Mildred Bootz “Millie” Battiste; sister, Marie Battiste Wilson; children, David (Connie), Richard (Terry), and Randy (Louise); grandchildren, James (Blythe), Jeffrey (Tiffini), Leah, Tom, Mary Murray and Randall Joseph “J” Jr. Battiste; great-grandchildren, Natalie, Cole and Brecken Battiste; and many other relatives and friends whose lives he touched. Funeral services will be held from the chapel of Radney Funeral Home on Dauphin Street on Monday September 26, 2011, at 2 p.m. The family will receive friends at the funeral home from 12 noon until the service hour. Interment will be in Mobile Memorial Gardens. Condolences may be offered at www.radneyfuneralhome-mobile.com. Arrangements by Radney Funeral Home, 3155 Dauphin Street, Mobile, Alabama 36606.