Jim Bluejacket, Prominent Pekin Sportsman, Dies
Pekin Daily Times, Pekin, Illinois, Wednesday March 26, 1947

Jim Bluejacket, 59 years old Pekin resident who was well known in the world of sports, died at the Pekin hospital at 4 a.m. today,
following an illness of several months. Born in Adair, Okla., on July 8, 1887, Jim was a son of William and Lucy Daurthy Bluejacket.
His marriage to Jennie Piro took place Dec. 23, 1912 in Carthage, MO.

Jim came to Pekin about the time the Illinois-Missouri league was started and was a pitcher with the Pekin team for a number of years.
At the time the ball park was located at what is now known as the Soldwedel field at the end of  North Capitol street.

Next in Jim's list of baseball affiliations was the Three-I league in which he played with Bloomington.
Gaining renown as a ball player, Jim was bought by the New York Giants and before the season began jumped to the Brooklyn Federals. He later went to Milwaukee and then joined the Midwest league.

However, Jim wasn't a baseball player all his life, for about 18 years ago he went to the Dutch West Indies with the
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey as a welder foreman  and helped to build the largest oil refinery in the world.
He stayed with the New Jersey company until his retirement three years ago.

Jim and his wife went to Greybull, Wyo., to retire but returned to Pekin last summer when he became ill.
They resided at 910 Caroline street. Jim is survived by his wife; two sons, Fred, who is with a construction firm in Arabia, and
Jimmy, Santa Monica, CA.; two granddaughters and one brother, Louis, Adair Okla.. Two sisters and one brother are deceased.
The body was removed to Abts mortuary, where friends may call Thursday. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

Honor Ex-Pekin Big Leaguer
from a 1968 newspaper and photo by a family member that was in Aruba in April 1968

There may be very few around who remember him now but Pekin once had a big league pitcher named Jimmy Bluejacket and now a street has been  named for him in the improbable place of Aruba in the Dutch West Indies. Bluejacket Died in 1947 at the age of 60 but not before he had made quite a contribution to the baseball scene in Aruba.Employed there for 15years, he devoted countless hours to the youth of Aruba and was instrumental in the founding of the Lago Sports Park there.Bluejacket, born in Oklahoma, pitched for Brooklyn in the old Federal League in 1914-15 and then spent the next season with Cincinnati in the National. In three years in the majors he won 14 games and lost 16.

Monday, May 18, 1987
Jennie Bluejacket
Graveside services for Jennie Piro Bluejacket, 91, formerly of Pekin, will be held at 2 p.m..
Wednesday in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery.  A member of St. Joseph's pastoral team will officiate.
There will be no visitation. the Abts Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Greybull, Wyo.

Mrs. bluejacket died at 4:30 a.m. Friday, May 15, 1987, in Wyoming Retirement Center, Basin.
Born June 24, 1895, in St. Joseph, Mo., she was the daughter of Giacomo and Cosima Sansoni Piro.
She married James Bluejacket Dec. 23, 1912, in Carthage, Mo. He died in 1947.

Surviving are one sister, Lorraine "Lottie" Meskimen of Pekin; one brother, Tony "Roney" Piro of Pekin;
two grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Two children preceded her in death.
Mrs.. Bluejacket was a member of the scared Heart Catholic Church and the B. P. O. Doe No. 30 at Greybull, WY.