The younger Williams was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2003 and made no public statements in the final months of his life. According to Dave McCarthy, a family friend and director of the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame in Hernando, Fla., John Henry Williams underwent a bone marrow transplant a week before Christmas (his sister, Claudia, was the donor), but it was unsuccessful. Family sources also said John Henry underwent brain surgery Friday.
Al Cassidy, executor of Ted Williams's estate, said John Henry's mother, Dolores, and his sister were with him when he died at 10:33 local time Saturday night. Another family source indicated longtime friend of the Williams family, Eric Abel, was also at John Henry's bedside.
Born Aug. 27, 1968, John Henry was apart from his famous father for most of his first two decades. Ted Williams divorced John Henry's mother in 1972 and John Henry and younger sister Claudia saw little of their father. They saw even less of Bobby-Jo Ferrell, their half-sister from Ted's first marriage (Ted was married three times).
John Henry Williams grew up in rural Putney, Vt. As an adolescent, he severely burned his arms and chest and spent considerable time at the Shriners Burn Institute in Boston. He graduated from Vermont Academy, then spent three semesters at Bates before enrolling at the University of Maine at Orono. He earned a marketing degree from Maine in December of 1991.
Williams bore a startling resemblance to his father but inherited little of the slugger's athleticism. He did not play baseball in college and failed at several minor league tryouts, including a last-ditch effort at the age of 33 with the Red Sox' Gulf Coast League team in the summer of 2002, shortly before his father died.
