Whitey Burch was a promising young infielder applying his trade in the North Carolina farm leagues. His life would end in tragedy just seven months after entering military service.
Eldred “Whitey” Burch was living in Mount Croghan, South Carolina, when he signed with the Thomasville Tommies of the Class D North Carolina State League in 1939. The 5-foot-8 middle-infielder batted .215 with nine RBIs in 35 games. In 1940, he remained in the North Carolina State League and split the season as a second baseman with the Lexington Indians and the league champion Kannapolis Towelers, batting a vastly improved .291 with 39 RBIs in 76 games.
After two seasons, Burch’s minor league career was put on hold when he entered military service on April 16, 1941, and he served with the 530th Signal Corps of the U.S. Army Air Force at Drew Field, Tampa, Florida. On Saturday afternoon, November 29, 1941, while on maneuvers in the Carolinas, Private Burch was driving an Army truck on the Morrow Mountain State Park Road near Albemarle, about a mile from the intersection with the Badin highway, when the truck overturned. Burch, just 23 years old, was crushed by the steering wheel and died at the scene. Two other soldiers, Corporal Everett L. Jobe and Private Guadalupe Villarreal were injured and taken to Stanley General Hospital in Albemarle.
Whitey Burch, who is buried at the Elizabeth Baptist Church Cemetery in Mount Croghan, is one of only three former professional baseball players to die in service before the United States had entered WWII.
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