Jimmie Foxx, Jr. Dies

Dan Loparco has informed the A’s Society that Jimmie Foxx, Jr. died in his sleep on December 29, 2006. Loparco was a close friend of Foxx’s. Foxx was born on October 3, 1929—the first child of Jimmie and Helen Foxx—just as the Philadelphia Athletics were preparing to take on the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. (The A’s took the Fall Classic in five games.)

Jimmie Jr. attended a boarding school in Germantown and later was sent to the Riverside Military Academy in Georgia. The Foxx’s divorced in 1943, and Jimmie Jr. came to live with his father and second wife, Dottie, in 1948. At the time, the family lived on Hale Street in Philadelphia. Jimmie Jr. stayed there until he joined the army in 1949. He later served in the Korean War, married a woman in California and continued to live on the West Coast.

Jimmie Jr. was still in California in the early 1970s, but at that point he faded from view, and the rest of the Foxx family lost contact with him. According to Loparco, who met Jimmie Jr. in the late 1970s, Jimmie worked as a truck driver for a concrete company in California and through his employment became close friends with Loparco’s father. Jimmie’s greatest love was muscle cars, Loparco says. He would buy them and fix them up for sale. Jimmie lived a reclusive life for the most part, Loparco adds, preferring cars to people, and traveling with Loparco’s father to garage sales for the purpose of “collecting junk.”

Jimmie Jr. was reunited with the Foxx family through the A’s Society. He attended the A’s Society Reunion Weekends in 2005 and 2006. “He enjoyed the A’s Society and looked forward to the reunions,” Loparco notes. While he did not parade the fact that he was the son of a famous baseball player, Loparco observes, he was happy to talk about his father if asked.

The A’s Society has been asked in the past if there was more than one Jimmie Foxx Jr. In addition to Jimmie Foxx Jr. who was born in 1929, Jimmie Foxx, Jr., II was born on September 14, 1944, the first child of Jimmie Foxx and his second wife Dottie.

Editors note: For all of its 10 years the A's Society was under the impression that Jimmie Foxx Jr. was dead. However in the spring of 2005 Dan Loparco of Suffern, NY, sent us an e-mail that his dad was close friends with Jimmie Foxx Jr, the son of Foxx Sr's first marriage. After several more messages a meeting was arranged to meet Loparco & Foxx Jr. at a Holiday Inn in Allentown, PA. The rest is history. As an aside, it is interesting to note that his signature closely resembles that of his famous dad. We will miss Jimmie Foxx Jr.

Photo Tribute to Jimmie Foxx, Jr.