Westerman (AAGPBL)
Helen Westerman Austin (1926-2006) graduated from Feitshans High School and grew up playing softball with the Springfield Merchants and the Madison Furniture Co. women’s softball teams. Westerman was a shortstop and catcher.
Westerman and her Madison Furniture teammate, Janice “Jerry” O’Hara, were among 60 women selected in 1943 to join what was then the All-American Girls Softball League (later the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, made famous in the movie “A League of Their Own.”) Westerman played for the Kenosha Comets and later for the Rockford Peaches.
In 1948, she signed on to be a catcher for the Cardinals in Chicago’s professional women’s softball league.
Westerman married Maurice Austin in 1950; they later divorced. After her softball career, Austin worked for the Hobbs Division of Stewart Warner, where she played a key role in organizing the United Auto Workers. Following her retirement at Hobbs, ran a Watkins business for 16 years.
Contributor: Thanks to Anna Sielaff, local history librarian at Lincoln Library’s Sangamon Valley Collection.
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