Today, October 25, 2024, is the opening day of the 2024 World series. It seemed like a good day to take a moment to remember Coyla Gaspar, a professional photographer who was married to Harry L Gaspar, a professional baseball player who was also a photographer.
As proof that Harry Gaspar was baseball player, here’s his baseball card from when he played for the Cincinnati Reds:
But we’re also here to talk about Harry’s wife, Coyla Gaspar (née Free). Miss Coyla Free was a photographer before she married Harry, opening her own studio as a single woman in the early 1900s in Kingsley, Iowa.
That’s the town where Harry L. Gaspar was from, and presumably that’s where Coyla and Harry met. But after Coyla and Harry marry in 1909, Harry’s father buys the couple a photography studio to run together in LeMars, Iowa. By that time Harry is already having success as a pro baseball player, so Coyla is left much of the time to run the studio in LeMars on her own, a point that is mentioned in a 1923 article as the couple is about to move away from Iowa:
Le Mars Semi-Weekly Sentinel, July 20, 1923
Harry’s career lasts 24 years, including 3 years pitching in the major leagues for the Cincinnati Reds from 1908-1911. (There’s a nice bio of him here and another one of him here. ) Harry was famous for being both a professional photographer as well as a baseball pitcher, a fact that was referenced in news reports of the games in which he played, e.g.;
But Coyla clearly has a lot of time running that studio by herself during those 24 years she and Hary owned the Gaspar Studio in Le Mars. Here are a couple of ads for the studio through the years:
When Harry retires from baseball in 1923, the couple move their family to California. While there, Harry runs a bowling alley and Coyla stays at home with their children. Harry dies of heart trouble at the relatively young age of 57 in 1940. Coyla lives until age 83, passing away in 1965.
In any case, it’s not everyday that you run across a photography couple with a personal connection to baseball, so in honor of today’s start to the World Series, I did want to take the opportunity to remember them today!
P.S. The title of this post is a reference to the song Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
But you may have already known that. According to Wikipedia, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game is one of the three-most recognizable songs in the US, along with The Star-Spangled Banner and Happy Birthday. However, most people are only familiar with the chorus.” The full lyrics, including the verses, are in that Wikipedia entry. Until I read that, I had not known the idea of the song was that the song is being sung by a woman who wants her beau to take her to the ball game (you’ll see what I mean if you read the lyrics here.)
What I also found interesting to learn about the song (from that Wikipedia entry) was that it was written by two people who hadn’t ever attended a baseball game prior to writing the song.
