Helene Robison Britton

Helene Hathaway Robison Britton

• Born 1879 in Cleveland, OH USA
• Died January 8, 1950 in Philadelphia, PA USA

Biographical Information

Helene Hathaway Robison Britton was the first woman to run a baseball franchise. She inherited the St. Louis Cardinals from her uncle Stanley Robison in 1911. She had to fight other owners, who did not like the idea of a woman joining their exclusive club, and at first had to let team president Edward Steininger speak on her behalf, but by 1916 was holding the office of team president herself. She worked on attracting more female fans to the ballpark by multiplying the number of Ladies Days. She divorced her husband Schuyler Britton when he proved to be a lay-about drunkard and womanizer.

After the 1916 season, having found the responsibilities of the day-to-day running of the club excessive and in a precarious financial state, she decided to sell the team. The team's legal counsel, attorney James Jones put together a group of local businessmen who made an offer of $375,000. The sale was made, but Helene Britton had to file lawsuits to receive the full payment.

Further Reading

• William A. Cook: Lady Moguls: A History of Women Who Have Owned Major League Baseball Teams, Sunbury Press, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2015. ISBN 978-1-6200-6636-2
• Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella: "Helene Britton", in The New Biographical History of Baseball, Triumph Books, Chicago, IL, 2002, pp. 42-43.
• Joan M. Thomas: Baseball's First Lady: Helene Hathaway Robison Britton and the St. Louis Cardinals, Reedy Press, St. Louis, MO, 2010.

Related Sites

• Helene Britton at the SABR Bio Project