Boyd Owen Bartley

1920 - 2012

Boyd Owen Bartley, 92, passed away Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. Funeral: 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Greenwood Chapel. Interment: Greenwood Memorial Park. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Greenwood Funeral Home. Boyd Owen Bartley was born Feb. 11, 1920, in Chicago, Ill., to Clara and Thomas Bartley. He attended the University of Illinois on a baseball scholarship. Some of the records he set then still stand today. After college he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers organization and played shortstop on the major league level for one year before being drafted by the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, he returned home and became a minor league team manager for the now Los Angeles Dodgers. After nine years of managing he took a hiatus from baseball, but the game he loved would call him back as a scout. He stayed with the Dodgers organization until he retired in 1990. In November 2012, he was inducted into the Texas Scouting Hall of Fame. His love of baseball only came second to his love for his family. He and his wife, Aletha Ruth Goodman, were secretly married while he was still in college so he wouldn't lose his scholarship. She was the absolute love of his life and they have been married for 70 years. After his retirement from baseball, he and Aletha traveled the country in an RV for many years. They were regular travel companions with both of Aletha's brothers and their wives. Boyd was a man of few words and had a gruff exterior, but those who were close to him would say he had the biggest heart and would be your greatest supporter. Survivors: Wife, Aletha; sons, Thomas Bartley, Boyd Bartley and his wife, Margaret, Daniel Bartley and his wife Linda; daughter, Judith Bartley Jordan and her husband, Jerry; grandchildren, Kim Jordan, Ryan, Taylor, Travis, Allison and Monica Bartley; and great-grandchildren, Helena and Sophia Jordan McDonald.