From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

Benson, William, Sr. "Bud"

(born: 1898 - died: June 10, 1937)

"Bud" Benson was team manager of the Lynch Grays, a Negro baseball team in Lynch, KY (Harlan County); he was also a coal miner. Born in Marion, AL, he was the son of Mary Jane Naves Benson (1857-1929) and Pinkington Benson, Sr. (1850-1932). It was not uncommon for Black miners to also be baseball players on segregated teams supported by the coal companies. The Lynch Grays were sponsored by the U.S. Coal and Coke Company [source: Diamonds in the Rough (thesis), by D. R. Bowden, p. 43].

In some newspaper sources, the team is referred to as the Lynch Demons. In 1935 the team was considered the best colored baseball team in Kentucky with a record of 34-1 [source: see NKAA entry]. The team may have had a different name some seasons, or there may have been more than one team.

The history of the team goes back to at least 1924 when they were referred to as the Lynch colored team with no specific name [see NKAA entry]. It was several years later that Bud Benson was playing for and managing the Lynch Grays. He was with the team from the time he came to Kentucky in the 1920s until shortly before his death from pneumonia on June 10, 1937 at the age of 39; his body was removed to Marion, AL for burial [sources: Kentucky Certificate of Death Register No. 38; and phone conversations and email correspondence with Bud Benson's granddaughter Mary Sanders].

In addition to being team manager, Bud Benson played at the catcher position. His family members have a photograph of the Lynch Grays baseball team taken around 1935, according to Benson's grandson James Spate. Bud is on the far left side of the photograph with the word "manager" on his shirt.

Bud Benson had played baseball before he came to Kentucky, according to his granddaughter Mary Sanders. He moved to Kentucky with his wife Emma Costin Benson a few years before his mother died, two weeks before Christmas 1929. After his mother's death, Benson's wife Emma went to Alabama and brought his daughter Lucy to Kentucky. The family's move to Kentucky was part of the larger migration of African American coal miners and their families from Alabama to the eastern Kentucky coal-mining counties.

Bud and Emma Costin Benson were the parents of William Benson, Jr. (II)* (1929-1953). The family was later joined by Bud's nine-year-old daughter Lucy Benson, a child from his previous marriage to Sarah Moore Benson who died in childbirth. Lucy had been living with Bud's mother. She would return to live in Alabama after Bud's death in 1937.

William "Bud" Benson's daughter, Julia Mae Benson Lee (1920-2011), and his son William Benson, Jr. (I) also came to live in Kentucky. They were the children of Mabel Essex. Julia M. Benson Lee was the mother of James Bradley Benson, Frank Lee, and John Lee. Julia M. Benson Lee died in 2011 and is buried in Cumberland, KY (Harlan County). Sources: U.S. Social Security Death Index, and information from William "Bud" Benson's grandsons, James Spate and James Bradley Benson.

Bud Benson's older sister Ella A. Benson Green also moved to Lynch, KY. The wife of J. H. Green, she died in Lynch April 23, 1939. Her body was removed for burial to Marion, AL [source: Kentucky Certificate of Death Register No. 109]. An older brother, Nathan Benson (b. c.1884), also moved to Harlan County, where he was employed as a coal loader [source: 1940 U.S. Federal Census]. Nathan, who was widowed, brought with him from Marion, eight family members and two lodgers. They all lived at #22 P.V. & K. Camp. Nathan moved to Kentucky after 1935, according to the census records.

Another relative, Bud's uncle Rev. William B. Benson, lived in Harlan County with his wife Narcississ (1878-1947) on Kentucky Avenue; they are listed in the 1930 and the 1940 U.S. Federal Census. Rev. Benson was born around 1869 in Alabama and died in Harlan County on December 7, 1941 [source: Kentucky Certificate of Death]; the death certificate does not give the city location of his burial, but the name of the cemetery was Hill Crest. His wife Narcississ Johnson Benson was born in Alabama. Her parents were from Virginia. She died in Peoria, IL, on March 2, 1947, and is buried in the Springdale Cemetery [source: Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index].

For the Benson family members, and many other families, the migration/recruitment to Kentucky was for employment in the coal mines. They were seeking better wages and living conditions. Playing baseball was a fun activity supported by the coal companies with the intent of creating a stronger bond between the employee and the workplace with hopes of keeping out the perceived interferences such as unions and the idea of unionizing. If a coal miner could play baseball, then that was an added incentive for him to be hired.

*William Benson, Jr. (I), known as "Jack," was the son of Mabel Essex and William Benson, Sr. "Jack" was born in Alabama. He was the father of William Benson, Edward Leon Benson, Alvin James Benson, Wanda Marie Benson Ford, and Sharon Inez Benson Morrison Frick.

*William Benson, Jr. (II), known as "BoBo," was the son of Emma Costin Benson and William Benson, Sr. "BoBo" was born in Lynch, KY, and died during the Korean War. The heavily-decorated serviceman is buried in the Lynch Cemetery. "BoBo" was the father of Gerald Mullins.