Helen (Y’Barbo) Snyder “was about 14 years old in 1950 when she traveled to Ohio from the Houston area to visit her sister, who was married and lived in the Warren (OH) area.” (See: Runyan, Ed, “Touching all bases,” Warren, OH Tribune Chronicle, April 27, 2024,
p. 41. All of the information in this short biography were adapted from this article.)

Unplanned by Helen, she finished her high school years while residing with her sister, and toward the end of her 1954 senior year, she tried out for the AAGPBL. She won one of 10 spots out of 50 contestants to become a member of the South Bend (IN) Blue Sox and later that season, she was traded to the Kalamazoo Lassies.

The 1954 season was the last for the AAGPBL, but Helen continued playing softball for several Trumbull County women’s teams in the 1950s and 1960s. She also began working her 37 year career at the Packard Electric Division of General Motors after the 1954 season.

Over the years, Helen was an active member of St. William Parish in Mecca Township and an officer of her golf league for 20 years. It was during a meeting with some of the women in her church to deal with end-of-life decisions that Helen’s year as an AAGPBL player came to light. Thus, Helen, a formerly “lost” All-American was “found!”