The Chris Moeller Archives

Lil was Stan's high school sweetheart in the coal-mining town of Donora, Pennsylvania during the late '30s. They married in 1940, just before his 22-year Major League career began. They had 4 children, then 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. She lived largely out of the limelight, but she did local television commercials with her husband in the '50s and '60s, and raised a ton of money for charity over the years, first as the founder of the Pinch-Hitters group, a first-of-its-kind organization made up of Cardinals players' spouses, then with Covenant House St. Louis, a shelter for homeless, runaway, and at-risk youths.

She was a fixture at the ballpark through the years, bringing her friendly countenance, and a sense of warmth, grace, and humility to the intersections of three different Busch Stadiums over seven decades. Lil and her family came to define the city of St. Louis in all of the best ways imaginable. As a Cards fan, I feel I know her best because of her presence in a made-for-video film called "The Legend of Stan the Man Musial." Filmed when she was in her 70s, she gets a lot of screen time to talk about the Musials' shared life and marriage. My favorite anecdote is the one where a crowd of autograph seekers surrounding Stan becomes too aggressive, knocking Lil to the ground. She gets up and pushes the offending fan in the chest. "What did you do thatshouldn't have done that. That was my fan."for?!" she says. When the Musials are alone together later in the day, Stan tells her, "You

I'm not willing to state today that Lillian Musial is the fully-idealized companion figure for any citizen of the United States desiring to be married, but I will say that Joe DiMaggio married the most iconic woman in the world, Marilyn Monroe, and he died a prideful, bitter, resentful man. Stan Musial married Lillian Labash and he became a universally-beloved and legendary baseball figure, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, who for all his diamond exploits (and they are extensive) is still best known as the sports figure who has worn an incessant smile on his face for 72 friggin' years. The deepest condolences and respect to the family of Lillian Musial.

Stan & Lil (and a close friend in background)

And the one she called "her Hollywood pic"...