Bill “Duke” Kenworthy (1886–1950): Major League Baseball Player Who Drowned at Sea

Duke Kenworthy and Mausoleum Vault

Main Mausoleum, Section 7, Crypt 783, Tier 5

William Jennings “Duke” Kenworthy was born on July 4, 1886, on a small Ohio farm near Hopewell in Guernsey County. His parents, Benjamin Franklin Kenworthy and Jennie Lowry Kenworthy, named him after the populist firebrand William Jennings Bryan, a symbolic touch for someone who would later earn a populist following in America’s rough-and-ready minor leagues.

Kenworthy graduated from Muskingum College with a teaching degree and began his professional baseball career in 1907 while still working winters as a schoolteacher. He was a small man by ballplayer standards — just 5-foot-7 — but compensated with ingenuity and determination. Fellow player Chuck Dressen once said Kenworthy was the first man he ever saw who put lead shot in the fingers of his glove to help his small hands close around the ball.

Kenworthy began as a pitcher, winning 20 or more games in back-to-back seasons for Zanesville in 1909 and 1910. But his bat soon became as valuable as his arm. Drafted briefly by the Boston Red Sox, he ended up with the Denver Grizzlies, where he batted .315 and was known for his massive 42-inch “war club,” fashioned from a hickory tree on his Ohio farm and seasoned behind the family stove. He treated that bat as a companion — the first of many that became part of his lore.

Seattle teammates Duke Kenworthy & Brick Eldred

One of Kenworthy’s quirks was his devotion to his bats, which he named and polished obsessively. His favorite, “Betty,” was polished to such a shine with tobacco juice, resin, and a piece of pop bottle that he could “see his face in it.” Between games he would “talk” to Betty, running his fingers along the handle until it squeaked.

“Well, how you feelin’ today, Betty?” he’d ask.
“Skeek!” came the reply as his fingers rubbed the smooth handle.
“Gonna get me some hits today, Betty?”
“Skeek!”
“Atta baby. A triple, maybe?”
“Skeek!”

That ritualized conversation between man and bat became part of Pacific Coast League folklore — a mix of humor and superstition that defined Kenworthy’s style.

Kenworthy reached the majors in 1912 with the Washington Senators, playing in ten games and hitting .237. Two years later he joined the Kansas City Packers of the renegade Federal League, where he became one of its brightest stars. In 1914, he hit .317, leading his team with 15 home runs and 91 RBIs — nearly topping the entire league. The next year, he led Kansas City in batting again at .298. His charisma and play earned him the nickname “The Iron Duke.”

That same year, newspapers across the country reported that Kenworthy had inherited $1 million from a wealthy uncle in London, dubbing him “His Lordship Kenworthy.” Though he delighted in the story, the money never arrived; the supposed estate was tied up in British probate and later seized by the Crown. Kenworthy kept right on playing — joking that he’d “quit the game only if I get benched.”

Portland Beavers team photo featured Kenworthy

When the Federal League collapsed, Kenworthy headed west to the Pacific Coast League, where he became a fixture for the next decade — playing and managing for the Oakland Oaks, Los Angeles Angels, and Seattle Rainiers. In 1916 he led the league in hitting with a .314 average for the Oaks. In Seattle, fans adored him for his fiery play and sharp humor. He was also known for his impeccable grooming: he carried his wife’s electric iron on road trips, pressing his own shirts in hotel rooms. As sports cartoonist Al Demaree joked in 1929, “Every ball player used to pride himself on his silk shirts — and if you were a good friend of Kenworthy’s, he’d iron yours too.”

In 1922, Kenworthy’s popularity nearly derailed his career when baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspended him during a contract dispute with the Portland Beavers, suspecting an under-the-table agreement with team owner Bill Klepper. Though reinstated, the controversy stung. Still, Kenworthy remained one of the Coast League’s most respected figures — both as a manager and as a clubhouse wit.

By 1924, he sold his shares in the Beavers for a tidy $46,000 and left baseball to become a building contractor in Oakland, where his energy and optimism made him a success. He never strayed far from the game, however. He coached the Oakland Oaks in 1939 and later joined St. Mary’s College in Moraga as freshman baseball coach.

Kenworthy remained athletic into his sixties, winning the Northern California Senior Golf Championship in both 1941 and 1942. He loved the outdoors, spending weekends fishing or hunting with friends. That passion would prove fatal.

Oakland Tribune headline September 22, 1950

On September 21, 1950, Kenworthy set out from Eureka, California, aboard an 18-foot inboard motorboat with three companions — Fred Williams, Cecil Bilson, and E. J. Hysdal — for a salmon fishing trip on Humboldt Bay. When they failed to return, a Coast Guard search found the overturned boat and Kenworthy’s body washed ashore. The others were never found. The Oakland Tribune reported that the men had likely been caught by a strong tide at dusk and overturned by rough surf. There were no life jackets aboard.

Kenworthy was 64 years old.

Kenworthy’s funeral became something of a reunion for the West Coast baseball fraternity. Among his pallbearers were several men who had left their mark on the baseball diamond. Johnny Vergez, a former New York Giants third baseman and Kenworthy’s coaching colleague at St. Mary’s College, helped lead the procession, joined by Sammy Bohne, who had patrolled infields for the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Robins. Bud Richards and Wally Lynn, both fixtures of Pacific Coast League carried their old teammate one last time. Another pallbearer, Bernie DeViveiros, had himself played for the Chicago White Sox and spent years as a respected PCL shortstop before turning to coaching. DeViveiros, fittingly, now rests not far from Kenworthy at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland [Read about him HERE].

Sportswriter Emmons Byrne described Kenworthy as “a hustling, fighting ballplayer” who played for love of the game and never lost his humor or kindness. Even in his final years, Byrne noted, “The Duke was as generous as ever, coaching kids for free or helping a neighbor build his house.”

Another former big leaguer, Nubs Kleinke, who pitched briefly for the St. Louis Browns in the 1930s, also drowned in a boating accident off the California coast and is also buried at Mountain View Cemetery [read about him HERE].

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Sources:
Bill Nowlin, “Duke Kenworthy,” Society for American Baseball Research; Oakland Tribune (Sept. 22 & 25, 1950); San Mateo Times (Sept. 22, 1950); Lawrence Daily Journal-World (Aug. 10, 1929); Salt Lake Tribune (Mar. 6, 1928); Portland Sunday Oregonian (Apr. 16, 1922); Baseball-Reference; Retrosheet; Find a Grave; Wikipedia

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