Like Superman, Gene Doyle had his public and private personas.
“He was two different people,” said Phyllis Doyle, his wife of 66 years. “He was very quiet, behind the scenes, but on the ballfield he was very competitive.”
A former Festus mayor and longtime baseball and softball aficionado, Mr. Doyle died Oct. 11 at age 90.
He grew up in East St. Louis, Ill., and joined the Army right after high school graduation.
“He decided college wasn’t really for him,” Phyllis said. “He served just short of four years and was deployed to Okinawa and to Korea. He was technically a draftsman, but what he mostly did was play baseball – his colonel was a baseball nut.”
Back in the states, he met Phyllis at a weenie roast some friends held, and the two were married in 1957. They lived in St. Louis, and Mr. Doyle went to work as a draftsman with Hussman Refrigeration.
“He was browsing the paper, and a help wanted ad from Union Electric caught his eye,” Phyllis said. “He got hired, and he tells me they’re sending him someplace called Festus. It could have been China, for all I knew.”
The couple settled in and welcomed five children in 10 years. But Mr. Doyle couldn’t be completely happy if he couldn’t play ball.
“(With American) Legion baseball, you couldn’t be over 21, and he was 23,” Phyllis said. “Then he saw an ad about a fast-pitch softball team.”
He played briefly for a local team and then found a Pepsi-sponsored team in Flat River that was more competitive.
“He’d play on local teams during the week and Pepsi on weekends,” Phyllis said. “One summer his schedule was nine games in seven days. It was his passion and his hobby.”
In 1980, the Doyles opened Royals Sporting Goods in Festus.
“We had Royals for eight years,” she said. “It was very successful. But people don’t realize how tied down you are with a store. He sold it to a guy who had it for a year or so; then Karen Biehle bought it.”
It was during that time Mr. Doyle came to realize that sports options were limited for girls.
“He decided that female athletes weren’t being given their due, and he got involved in teaching and coaching girls teams,” Phyllis said.
His Royals won the state fastpitch title in 1979 and played in the national tournament.
He also helped longtime St. Pius X High School softball coach Barb Charboneau and assisted Mizzou softball coach Jay Miller, traveling with the team for a few seasons.
After he retired from Ameren in 1999, Mr. Doyle stayed put for a time.
“He had traveled enough,” his wife said with a laugh. “He was content to stay home.”
Then some friends convinced him to join the world of politics.
“Dave Long and a couple of other people he knew kind of talked him into running for the (Festus City) Council, and he served two terms,” Phyllis said. “That same group talked him into running for mayor, and he got elected in 2003.”
Phyllis said it seemed at first the mayoral title might not be a good fit for a man who wasn’t particularly extroverted.
“He didn’t like going to meetings, and he wasn’t a social butterfly,” she said. “He just didn’t seem the type. But he wasn’t in it for the glory. He did it in the best interest of the people. He really sincerely wanted to help.”
Mr. Doyle quit coaching in 1991 but continued to play himself, competing in senior tournaments well into his late 60s.
“I think he missed it (after he stopped playing), and so did I,” Phyllis said. “It was my social activity, too. I was scorekeeper.”
In recent years, Mr. Doyle puttered around, working in the yard and going to nearby West City Park (now Larry G. Crites Memorial Park) to watch teams play.
“It didn’t take a whole lot to keep him busy,” Phyllis said. “He could make up things to do.”
But dementia began to set in, which caused him anxiety.
“His doctor told Gene he had ‘age related memory loss’ and that kept Gene calm,” Phyllis said. “It developed rather slowly.”
As his condition worsened, Mr. Doyle experienced muscle weakness, and Phyllis said she took him to Walmart nearly every morning, for both physical and mental stimulation.
On Oct. 5, they were unable to go because of weather, and Mr. Doyle settled into a chair in the living room.
“When he couldn’t get up, I called 911,” Phyllis said. “They took him to the ER and then wanted to transfer him to Festus Manor. At home, he would have been very agitated about it, but going there from the hospital he was pretty calm.”
Over the next few days, his condition deteriorated.
“He just slept more and more. I don’t know, he may have even been in a coma,” his wife said. ”It got harder for him to breathe. That Wednesday afternoon, I patted him on the chest and said, ‘I’ll come back in a while.’
“They called me just about two hours later, and he had gone in his sleep. It was a blessing. He didn’t struggle; he wasn’t in pain.”
Phyllis said her husband will be remembered for his efforts to give back to the community.
“He was interested in developing talent, making people feel good about themselves,” she said.
“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.