In 1918, Babe Ruth’s future daughter Julia caught the 1918 flu. Babe’s future wife Claire took care of her two year old Julia as well as Julia's grandmother while continuing to work. Claire’s two brothers couldn’t help since they had left the US to possibly die in a foreign war

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Julia Ruth Stevens, July 7, 1916-March 9, 2019

Dec. 1, 2007, “Julia Ruth Stevens," Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA)

[Julia Ruth Stevens, image from PSA]

Julia was born in Athens, Georgia on July 17, 1916.

“Her [Julia’s] mother, Claire, in search of a career as a model, was well aware of the fact that the opportunities in Georgia were fairly limited. Realizing that if she was going to make a go at a career she would have to leave the shelter of her Athens’ home, Claire packed up her mother and toddling baby [Julia] and headed off to New York where she eventually met and married one of the most legendary men to ever roam the globe – Babe Ruth. Sports Market Report recently spoke with Julia Ruth Stevens while she visited her summer home in Conway, New Hampshire and asked her to share some of the memories, thoughts, and feelings she harbors about her life and her legendary father.

[Claire, Julia, and Babe, psa]

Sports Market Report: Throughout your entire life you have been asked just about every imaginable question about your father, so, we thought we would like to start this interview by asking you to tell us something about your mother.

Julia Ruth Stevens: My mother was a beautiful woman who was also a wonderful mother. She had been the youngest of three children and her two older brothers lived with us. She split up with my biological father shortly after I was born, so I never knew him at all. He died not too much longer after they broke up. Well, when I was a baby, my mother took me to New York with her so that she could pursue her modeling career. That was 1918, and she did quite a bit of modeling work and also worked on the stage as a dancer and actress.

[Image: 1918, NYC: “Throngs of New Yorkers fill the streets of Manhattan to celebrate Armistice Day, November 11, 1918…..Public health officers across the nation feared that such large-scale gatherings would help continue to spread influenza, but knew that there was little they could do to try and stop them.” National Archives and Records Administration]

At that time, my two uncles had gone off to serve in the military and my grandmother was living with us. There was a great flu epidemic that hit that year and my grandmother and I [then two years old] both became quite ill. My mother took care of both of us while she still continued to work. She was a small person, but a very strong person. She had a lot of inner strength.”…

Babe and Julia’s mother Claire started a relationship in 1923 and married in 1929. Julia remembers meeting Babe at age 7 when he began visiting her mother.

[Left: 1933, Claire, Babe, and Julia, psa]

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Added: Babe Ruth with his wife Claire and two daughters, Dorothy and Julia. econproph

 

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