Omar Joseph "Turk" Lown (May 30, 1924 – July 8, 2016) was an American professionalbaseball player. He was a right-handed pitcher over parts of 11 seasons (1951–54, 1956–62) with the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox. The 6 ft (1.83 m), 180 lb (82 kg) Lown received his nickname as a child because of his fondness for eating turkey.[1]
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Lown was signed as an amateur free agent by the Brooklyn Dodgers and entered their farm system in 1942.[2] He attended and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School.[3] His baseball career was interrupted by World War II, serving in the US Army as an infantryman seeing action in the Battle of the Bulge and receiving the Purple Heart.[1] Following his military service, he returned to minor league baseball with the Dodgers from 1946 to 1950.[4] In November 1950, he was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the Rule 5 draft making his major league debut on April 24, 1951.[2]
Lown celebrated his 90th birthday with Violet, his wife of 65 years, their three sons, four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and many close friends, on Memorial Day 2014, in Pueblo, Colorado, where he played minor league baseball and in 1947 met Violet Krizman, who "became his best friend for life."[1] They returned to Pueblo, where he worked as a mail carrier for 23 years, after he retired from professional baseball.[1]
