LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nancy Bea Hefley, who entertained Los Angeles Dodgers fans as the team's organist for 27 years, died Saturday. She was 89.
Her son, Mark, announced her death in a Facebook post. “We lost my Mom today. She's in heaven with my Dad, Nancy Bea is gone from us sad day for us but good day for her and my Dad.”
The Dodgers said on X that she “delighted millions of fans for nearly 30 years.”
Public address announcer Todd Leitz informed the Dodger Stadium crowd of Hefley's death and there was a moment of silence before the game against the Detroit Tigers.
“There was just a gut punch exhale and reaction from this crowd,” backup play-by-play announcer Stephen Nelson said on the television broadcast.
Hefley took over from Helen Dell in 1988 and became as much a fan favorite as Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully and retired manager Tom Lasorda. Scully died in 2022 and Lasorda died in 2021.
Eventually, Hefley's playing time was reduced in 2015, and after she posted on Facebook that she didn’t fit in, the Dodgers offered her a lifetime contract.
“They said I had a job as long as I want the job, the job would not be open for anyone else,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “I will be signing a new contract at the end of the year.”
But during the final homestand of that season, Hefley announced her retirement. She was honored on the field before her final game.
She was succeeded by Dieter Ruehle, just the third organist the team has had since 1971.
Hefley began playing the piano at age 4 and at 13 she talked her teacher into showing her the basics of the organ.
She commuted to each homestand from her home in Silver Springs, Nevada, while renting a second home locally. She was accompanied by her husband, Bill, whom she met while playing the organ at Bellflower Baptist Church. He died in 2019.
She was a substitute organist for the Los Angeles Angels before auditioning for the Dodgers job in February 1988 at an exhibition game. The team went on to win the World Series that fall.
Pitcher Orel Hershiser became a star during the team's championship run, winning the National League Cy Young Award.
Hefley would play “Master of the House,” from the musical “Les Misérables” whenever Hershiser took the mound.
Hefley said her repertoire included 2,000 songs she could play from memory.
Asked if she ever got sick of playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” Hefley told the Los Angeles Times in 2004, “You'd think I would. But actually I don't.”
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