By Susan Stephens
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wnij/local-wnij-903125.mp3
Cathedral City, CA – One of the great baseball players of the World War Two era has died. Dorothy "Kammie" Kamenshek was a star of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
Kamenshek spent her ten-year career with the Rockford Peaches -- the team immortalized in the 1992 film "A League of Their Own." The left-handed first baseman was there for the league's inaugural season in 1943 and helped her team to four championships. She won the batting title twice and was selected an All-Star seven times. But her aggressive fielding took a toll: Kamenshek's back injuries led to her retirement and a life-time of pain. That steered her into her post-baseball career. She noted in a 2004 interview with WNIJ's Susan Stephens that she held a lot of records...including being the oldest physical therapist to graduate from Marquette University
Kamenshek graduated from college at the age of 33 and went on to become an award-winning children's hospital administrator in Los Angeles. She said she felt "very lucky" to be able to do all the things she wanted to do in her lifetime.
Dorothy Kamenshek died Monday in California with friends at her side, after a long series of illnesses. She was 84.