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In the late ’70s, I worked for a while at the Psychical Research Foundation, which occupied a couple of houses on Duke University property and did scientific research into the possibility of life after death. My time there was a lever that has lifted my life on Earth ever since, including many deep and enduring friendships.
Bill Roll ran the place then, and many fascinating characters passed through the PRF orbit. Eda and Lawrence Lashan, for example. Mac McDonnell. John Fetzer. One of the most memorable was Iris, a brilliant woman from Savannah with a strong personality, dyed red hair, and lots of talents. Her surname was pronounced “Mock,” but spelled with an “a” or two. (I think it was Maack.) She also mentioned occasionally that her brother was Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, the baseball player I remember best from his peak years with the Boston Red Sox. For many years since then, however, he has been the play-by-play announcer for the Chicago White Sox. Now 83, Hawk is still calling games for what will almost certainly be the losing-ist team in major league history.
So this morning, after I read “Hawk Harrelson spent 3 decades calling the White Sox. Now he can’t stand to watch” in the NY Times (sorry, paywall), I looked up “Hawk Harrelson” plus “sister” and “Iris” and landed on a 2018 page, with this passage from Hawk’s autobiography:
“My sister was a heavy smoker who had died of lung cancer when she was only 40. I was so proud of what Iris had done with her life after such a tough start, having to get married at the age of 14. She wrote a few books and became a gourmet cook. She also learned to speak fluent German, Russian, and Spanish. She lectured at Duke University and at the University of Toronto. She became an accomplished pianist. She also dabbled in acting and landed a few roles on stage in New York. And she was an interior designer, having turned my penthouse pad into a beautiful home.“But we had a falling out several years before she died when I turned down her request to borrow $250,000. She had wanted to open a nightclub in downtown Savannah and I didn’t have that much cash at the time. Plus, I didn’t think her business idea was a good one. When I refused her request, she walked out the door and I never saw her again.“Apparently, she never quit smoking.”
