Jackie Autry

Jacqueline Evelyn Elam Autry

• Born October 2, 1941 in Newark, NJ USA

Jackie Autry first met Gene Autry, former star of numerous "singing cowboy" movies and owner of the California Angels, in December of 1980 at the Eisenhower Medical Center's annual holiday fundraiser. She became the second Mrs. Autry on July 19, 1981. When Autry passed in 1998 she took over as Chairman of the Angels. A year later, Mrs. Autry sold the remaining shares of the Angels to the Walt Disney Company. Shortly after Dr. Gene Budig stepped down as President of the American League, Commissioner Bud Selig named Jackie as honorary President, a position she held until succeeded by Frank Robinson in 2015.

At the 2013 All-Star Game, Jackie Autry was quoted as saying that she and Bill Giles - honorary President of the National League - wanted the All-Star Game to return to the way it was. What she meant was that she wanted to see the return of AL domination in the 1990s and 2000s, while Giles wanted to go back to an even earlier era, in the 1960s and 1970s, when the senior circuit always won the Midsummer Classic.

Sources:

• http://articles.latimes.com/1999/aug/17/business/fi-940
• http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/jackie-autry-recent-star-game-results-not-acceptable-212042426.html
• http://www.geneautry.com/geneautry/geneautry_jackieautry.html