Fred Tenney - Personal Life and Death

Personal Life and Death

Tenney married Bessie Farnham Berry on October 21, 1895. The couple had two children together; Barbra, born July 4, 1899, and Ruth, born December 8, 1901. Early in his career, he refused to play baseball on Sundays due to his religion, although he later changed his mind. Tenney was known as the "Soiled Collegian" at the major league level because it was unpopular for college players to become professional. Tenney served as a journalist for The Boston Post, Baseball Magazine, and The New York Times. He painted and sketched during the winter.

After retiring from baseball, Tenney worked for the Equitable Life Insurance Society and continued writing for The New York Times. In 1912, he was vice-president of the Usher–Stoughton shoe manufacturing company in Lynn, Massachusetts; later, he formed the Tenney–Spinney Shoe Company in partnership with Henry Spinney. He was balloted for the National Baseball Hall of Fame from 1936–1942 and again in 1946, but never received more than eight votes, receiving eight (3.1% of total ballots cast) during the Baseball Hall of Fame balloting in 1938. Tenney died on July 3, 1952 at Massachusetts General Hospital after a long illness. He was intered at Harmony Chapel and Cemetery in Georgetown.