Suicide
Aside from the deterioration of his arm, Day's life had been riddled with problems. His brother, Lemmie Day, was also a promising pitcher who had his leg amputated in 1922 and later died from "blood poisoning.” In 1929, Day’s mother committed suicide by drinking poison, and his father died of a heart attack in 1932.
In early 1934, Day’s wife of eleven years gave birth to a baby boy, but Day was despondent at the loss of his pitching arm. Day reportedly turned to alcohol and in March 1934, traveled to Kansas City, "seeking treatment for lapses of memory." On March 21, 1934, while staying in the apartment of former teammate Max Thomas, Day slit his throat with a hunting knife. Thomas tried to stop Day but was pushed aside. His funeral in Pea Ridge was attended by more than 500 people.
Day was buried at the Pea Ridge Cemetery in Pea Ridge, Arkansas.
Read more about this topic: Pea Ridge Day
Famous quotes containing the word suicide:
“What man who carries a heavenly soul in him, has not groaned to perceive, that unless he committed a sort of suicide as to the practical things of this world, he never can hope to regulate his earthly conduct by that same heavenly soul?”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Nothing shall warp me from the belief that every man is a lover of truth. There is no pure lie, no pure malignity in nature. The entertainment of the proposition of depravity is the last profligacy and profanation. There is no scepticism, no atheism but that. Could it be received into common belief, suicide would unpeople the planet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is suicide to be abroad. But what is it to be at home, Mr. Tyler, what is it to be at home? A lingering dissolution.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)