Toni Ann Palermo

Toni Ann Palermo (February 15, 1933 – April 5, 2024) was an American baseball player with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). She began playing as a child with neighborhood teams, eventually being recruited into the higher leagues. When she was twenty, she joined the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee Wisconsin. She taught in Wisconsin grade and high schools before eventually attaining a PhD in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Toni Ann Palermo was born in Forest Park, Illinois, in February 1933 to Fred and Elvira Palermo, both of Italian descent. Since the family spoke only Italian, Palermo began to learn English when she went to school at the age of five. Palermo began to play baseball as a child. When she was eleven, she was recruited into the Parichy Bloomer Girls, a farm team known as the National Girls Baseball League, organized by Mr. Parichy, a construction worker from the area. The following year, 1945, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) invited her to go with them to Cuba for spring training. She refused the invitation, not knowing all that it would entail. However, three years later, at age fourteen, she was asked to go on tour with the AAGPBL to play shortstop. In the summers of 1949 and 1950, two of the teams barnstormed for the league, traveling throughout the United States. These were the Chicago Colleens and the Springfield Sallies. The two teams traveled together on busses and trains, playing each evening in a different city, to show their ability as women to play baseball. She describes how it was to sleep on a crowded bus without air conditioning. "There was no complaining, moaning, groaning, and no gossiping." In August 1950 they were quoted as saying that "We were the Only Girls to Play at Yankee Stadium."
Palermo's grade school years were spent in her hometown of Forest Park Illinois. She then went to Proviso East High School in Maywood Illinois. It was during the summers of these years that she played shortstop for the AAGPBL. In her oral interview she talks about learning different techniques of the game, how to slide onto a base and how to "reach out" to a ball. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in English, history and math from Alverno College. She then earned three master's 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. Her doctorate was interdisciplinary, that is, it included six program areas: counseling, adult education, administration, supervision, educational policy studies, and communication arts.
Palermo had decided that when she graduated from high school she would join the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee Wisconsin. She had been earning $75 a week which she always sent home to her father in an effort to help him financially. Even though she "ate, drank and slept baseball," she felt committed to keep her promise to join the School Sisters. In 1956 she was assigned to teach first grade at St. Therese School in Kankakee IL. In 1962 Palermo taught at St. Walter School in Roselle IL. In 1967 she moved to SS. Peter and Paul School in Naperville IL where she taught Physical Education. She had completed 13 years of teaching in the Diocese of Joliet. In 1970 she began her studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Palermo taught in Madison at the University of Wisconsin (1970-1980) and Sacred Heart School (1975-1979), and at Immaculate Heart of Mary School, Monona, and St. Francis School, Cross Plains (1981-1983). In 1976 she directed a seminar at the Fox valley Technical Institute on "The Joy of Being a Woman." Sister also served as associate director of the Marriage and Family Life Center in Madison (1979-1981). Since 1983, Sister Toni Ann ministered in Madison as a psychotherapist, and since 2004, she also served as a sales director for Mary Kay Cosmetics. Later, Palermo took up the game of tennis. In 1993 she played in the U.S Women's 45 and over Grass Court Tennis Championship . In 2019 she spent time coaching students at Walden Middle School in Racine Wisconsin.
Palermo died on April 5, 2024, at the age of 91.