Background
Haynes" mother was the sister of Griffith"s wife, Addie. Her father, James Robertson, was a minor league baseball player who died in the early 1920s, leaving behind a widow and seven young children.
Haynes" mother was the sister of Griffith"s wife, Addie. Her father, James Robertson, was a minor league baseball player who died in the early 1920s, leaving behind a widow and seven young children.
Born Thelma Mae Robertson in Montréal, Québec, she was the niece of Clark Griffith, a former star pitcher who became manager (1912-1920) and then president and chief stockholder of the Washington Senators (1920 until his death in 1955). The Senators relocated to Minneapolis–Saint Paul in the autumn of 1960 and have been known as the Minnesota Twins since 1961. With the Griffiths" support, the Robertsons soon moved from Montréal to Washington, District of Columbia, with eldest son Calvin Robertson and Thelma taking on the Griffith surname.
In October 1955, Clark Griffith died at age 85, leaving his 52 percent majority interest in the Senators evenly split between Calvin and Thelma.
Thelma wed a former Washington pitcher, Joe Haynes of the Chicago White Sox, in 1941. Joe would later return to the Senators/Twins as a player, coach and front office executive until his death in January 1967.
Their son, Bruce Haynes, also was an executive with the Twins" franchise. Thelma Griffith Haynes relocated from Minnesota to Florida in 1982 and died at 82 on October 15, 1995 in Orlando, the team"s longtime spring training home, after suffering a stroke.