Hear about Toni's experience in her own words through the Grand Valley State Oral history project.

Stats were not recorded for the Touring Teams in 1949.

Dr. Sister Toni Palermo was born in Forest Park, Illinois on Feb. 15,1933. She played as part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) in 1949 and 1950, for Chicago Colleens and Springfield Sallies as a shortstop and she also played professional softball with the Parichy Bloomer girls in the NGBL (National Girls Baseball League).

Toni became a Nun and earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in English, History and Math from Alvorno College. She then earned three Master Degrees and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She taught in the Physical Education Department and the School of Social Work at the University, Forest Park, IL.

She was recognized by the Baseball Association of Chicago for "Excellence as an AAGPBL Player, Educator and Leader.” She was also honored at Miller Park’s Gehl Club to honor Sr. Toni Ann “Peanuts” Palermo, a School Sister of St. Francis, for the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee’s Values in Action award ceremony. “Part of our thinking was to honor her (Sr. Toni Ann) for her long career as a vowed woman religious living out the charism of the School Sisters of St. Francis through her various teaching assignments,” said Tom Heinen, executive director for the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee. “Part of it was to honor her for her work with the poor and for her work supporting and empowering women.”

Sr. Toni said, “God has had his hand guiding me on this journey since day one. If anyone should have never entered the convent, it was yours truly,” joked Sr. Toni Ann. “When we were on tour, my roommate was a staunch Catholic and she would say, ‘Toni, get up, we’re going to Mass’ … most of the time I had to get up because she was forceful.”

“Baseball taught me discipline and how to be coachable,” she said. “In life we have to be coachable, we really have so much pride and can’t take any suggestions and just don’t grow. In every sport I’ve been in you have to be coachable; that’s truly how our lives go.” Said Sr. Toni.

Sr. Toni has touched the lives of so many people during her life … our lives have certainly been blessed by knowing her. Toni you made a difference more then you could ever know.

If you would like to hear Sr. Toni in her own words then click the above link to listen to her interview that she did for Grand Valley State University.