Life After Baseball
In the 1950s, he moved to Los Angeles and began working as a forklift operator. In 1952, he was selected by a Pittsburgh Courier poll as the Negro leagues' greatest catcher, ahead of Josh Gibson. Mackey received more attention on May 7, 1959 when Campanella was honored at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum following his paralysis from a car accident. Mackey was introduced to the crowd of over 93,000 for an exhibition game between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees.
Mackey lived in Los Angeles until his death in 1965. He was buried in that city's Evergreen Cemetery. Through the 1990s, reference sources widely reported his death as having occurred in 1959; this seems to have resulted from Campanella's recollection in John B. Holway's 1988 book Blackball Stars that Mackey "passed away right after" the Coliseum event, an apparent error that Campanella repeated in other interviews.
Mackey's grandson Riley Odoms played 12 seasons for the NFL's Denver Broncos.
Read more about this topic: Biz Mackey
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