By Dwight Daniels STAFF WRITER
January 1, 2003
As an Arkansas farm boy in the 1920s, Emon Columbus Perdue never had a chance to play organized baseball. His family of 10 was so poor he saved the strings from cow feed sacks to wrap around a rock until he had something resembling a baseball.
His passion for baseball never waned even as Mr. Perdue grew up to become a soldier who was wounded in battle, a civilian employee of the Navy, a husband, a father, a grandfather and a great-grandfather. Mr. Perdue, a Chula Vista resident who held the same Padres season tickets since 1973, died Friday from complications of cancer. He was 82.
A fixture at the stadium, Mr. Perdue had field-level seats in Section 34, and had become known, along with his wife, Madeline, to hundreds of fans, players, ushers and concessionaires.
"They carried on their love of the San Diego Padres," said Bud Wilson of Chula Vista, a friend who had seats a couple of rows from the Perdues.
Wilson was Madeline's employer until she died of leukemia in 1992.
Mr. Perdue's son John, an educator who lives in San Marcos, said his father found the ballpark provided a needed respite following Madeline Perdue's death.
"His love of being there, of being part of that community was even more important," John Perdue said, describing how young couples would bring youngsters to sit on his father's lap for a moment and say hello just as they had done with their parents at games years before. "That was special to him. Being there and being with people from the Padres was what he lived for."
A decades-long friend of Mr. Perdue's, San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Neil Morgan, described him as a rough-hewn son of the Ozarks, quick with a story and sure to give unvarnished if not always politically correct opinions. "He had lovely running, muttering commentaries, often blunt and critical of coaches and players," Morgan recalled.
But just underneath was a heart of gold, and even players who'd been on the edge of sharp-ended comments sometimes surprised the fan with special tributes.
"He was right there on the field level, running the roost from the first seat on the corner of Section 34," said John Perdue. "They'd walk up and hand him their bats. He's got a collection of them."
Another time, two players who'd heard it was Mr. Perdue's birthday walked up from the field and presented him with a cake for the occasion. Perdue's devotion to the team extended to spring training games each year, and making most Major League Baseball All-Star games.
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The Padres organization used Mr. Perdue's photograph on the cover of a 1979 program to illustrate "a fan" and used the likeness in other brochures.
Until then, Wilson said, no one could recall a non-player or team member being featured on a program cover in that way.
Morgan said he found that underneath Mr. Perdue's cantankerous side, there was much to be learned. "He knew more about baseball than any guy I ever sat beside," Morgan said.
There were life lessons to be learned from Mr. Perdue in the months and days before his death.
"Last Padres game I got to this past season, Emon got up and got his third-inning soft-serve ice cream, limped back into his seat, turned to me, and said, quite cheerfully, 'm ready to die.' " Morgan said. "He called his sons together the day before he died and told them that, too."
Mr. Perdue enlisted in the Arkansas National Guard and was called up during World War II. He served in France and received the Purple Heart after being wounded by shrapnel.
After the war, he lived in Arkansas for a short time. He moved to California, where he worked for a meat company as a delivery man. Mr. Perdue then worked as a machinist for the Navy at North Island Naval Air Station for three decades until retiring in 1982. He is survived by his sons, James Newton Perdue, who is traveling across America in a recreational vehicle with his family, and John Perdue of San Marcos; sister, Imogene of Eldorado, Ark.; brothers, Jessie Morgan Perdue of National City, and Claude Arthur Perdue of Eldorado; four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
No services were scheduled.
Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.