Later Life
After retiring, Radbourn opened up a successful billiard parlor and saloon in Bloomington, Illinois. Dating back to his playing days, he had always had a reputation for being a bit vain. Radbourn was seriously injured in a hunting accident soon after retirement. He lost an eye in the accident and spent most of the remaining years of his life shut in a backroom of the saloon he owned, too ashamed to be seen after the injury.
After suffering from the effects of syphilis for a number of years, Radbourn died in Bloomington in 1897 and is interred in Evergreen Cemetery. In 1941 a plaque was placed on the back of his (misspelled) headstone, detailing his career.
It is speculated that Radbourn may be the namesake of the charley horse, a painful leg cramp not unlike that from which he suffered.
Read more about this topic: Charles Radbourn
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“To quarrel with the uncertainty that besets us in intellectual affairs would be about as reasonable as to object to live one’s life with due thought for the morrow because no man can be sure he will alive an hour hence.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“They think how one life hums, revolves and toils,
One cog in a golden singing hive:”
—Stephen Spender (1909–1995)