Orville Barr
Ballplayers Wounded in Combat
| Date and Place of Birth: | February 25, 1918 Konnarock, Virginia |
| Date and Place of Death: | May 1, 2011 DeLand, FL |
| Baseball Experience: | Minor League |
| Position: | Pitcher |
| Rank: | Second Lieutenant |
| Military Unit: | K Company, 334th Infantry Regiment, 84th Infantry Division and I Company, 254th Infantry Regiment, 63rd Infantry Division US Army |
| Area Served: | European Theater of Operations |
Orville G. Barr, the son of John and Maud Barr, was born on February 25,
1918, in Konnarock, Virginia. Barr, a coal miner and left-handed
pitcher, was well-known in the Raleigh County League of southern West
Virgina. In 1937, he was 13-2 with the Koppers Coal Company team of
Stotesbury in the County League, and played minor league baseball from
1937 to 1940, having brief trials with the Danville Leafs of the Class D
Bi-State League and the Beckley Bengals of the Class D Mountain State
League in 1937. In 1938, he again had a brief trial with the Leafs and
made 18 appearances for the Bengals, with a 6-6 record and 7.59 ERA. He
was with the Bluefield Blue-Grays of the Mountain State League in 1939,
making 29 appearances, mostly as a starter, for an 11-11 record and 6.48
ERA. He was briefly with Bluefield again in 1940.
Barr entered military service in April 1941. He trained at Camp
Claiborne, Louisiana, and served with K Company of the 334th Infantry
Regiment, 84th Infantry Division, in France, Belgium and Germany during
1944 and 1945. Second Lieutenant Barr was awarded the Bronze Star for
heroic achievement, and the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat.
He was later attached to I Company of the 254th Infantry Regiment, 63rd
Infantry Division, and pitched for the regiment baseball team during the
summer of 1945 in Germany.
Barr returned to his home in Sophia, West Virginia, in 1945, and became
a welder. He was involved in the construction of the the world's largest
fully steerable radio telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia. He
continued to play baseball into the 1950s in the Raleigh County League
with the Sophia Boosters and the Amigo Redbirds.
Orville Barr passed away on May 1, 2011, in DeLand, Florida. He was 93
years old.
Orville Barr (front row, first left) with the Amigo Redbirds of the
Raleigh County League
Date Added February 1, 2018
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