Mickey Mantle

Spavinaw is a town in Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 563 at the 2000 census. The town is best known as the birthplace of baseball player Mickey Mantle. The first recorded settler here was Lewis Rogers, son of Captain John Rogers. Lewis set up a mill, a distillery and a... salt works in 1829. In 1839, the Eastern Cherokees began moving into the Spavinaw area of Indian Territory. The Cherokee council outlawed the operation of distilleries in their area and disposessed Rogers of his distillery and the salt works., both of which had already been damaged by a flooding of Spavinaw Creek. In 1846, Jacob Croft, a Mormon enroute to Utah, decided to settle here instead. He was hired by Joseph Lynch Martin to restore the mill. In 1855, a group of Mormon missionaries from Utah arrived at Croft's home and began converting Cherokees and Creeks. When they began urging the converts to move to Utah, Lewis Rogers complained to the Cherokee council. In October 1856, Chief John Ross ordered all Mormons out of the Cherokee nation. After the Civil War, Joseph Lynch, brother-in-law of Joseph Lynch Martin, began operating the mill and the salt works.
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Merlyn Mantle was an American author and widow of New York Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle. Mantle was born in Cardin, Oklahoma. She was the first of two daughters born to Giles and Reba Johnson. She had a sister, Pat, who was three years younger. While attending high school, she met Mickey... Mantle two years before his debut in Major League Baseball. Mickey was a baseball player at Commerce High School, while Merlyn was a cheerleader at the rivaling Picher High School. Their first date took place at a movie theater along the famed Route 66 in Miami, Oklahoma. On December 23, 1951, she married Mantle, following his rookie season with the New York Yankees. The couple had four sons: Mickey Jr. , Billy , David and Danny . They remained married for 43 years, until Mickey Mantle's death in 1995, although they were estranged during Mickey Mantle's final years. Mickey died of liver cancer on August 13, 1995. Their son, Billy, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, but died of a heart attack in 1994, aged 36. Another son, Mickey Jr., died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2000, aged 47.
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