The Amazing, Blazing, Labor Brothers  

Baseball Pitchers Ike and Everett

By Bryce Martin

Which one had the best fastball? Let's call it even.

The St. Louis Cardinals saw enough in both Galena baseball pitchers to sign each one, Ike first in 1956, and then Everett in 1958.

Ike signed right out of high school, Everett a year after his high school graduation. I recall seeing a small mention of Ike when he signed, published in the Galena Sentinel- Times.

Everett was with the Galena Indians entry for the 1955 Junior League kickoff season (forerunner of the Babe Ruth League, organized the following year in 1956). Ike was with The Galena Merchants town team under manager/player Glenn Woods. The Merchants played regularly against the Alba (Mo.) Aces. Alba, the hometown of the celebrated Boyer brothers professional baseball family, was a baseball hotbed. 

The region regularly attracted St. Louis Cardinals baseball scouts.

While both boys excelled in athletics in high school and summer league baseball, Ike, often the high scorer in basketball games for the Galena High School Bulldogs, and Everett paired up together on the court. The duo added to the talent level on the football team as well.

They came to Galena from Riverton, 1954-1955 school year. It was the Ramblers' loss and the Bulldogs' gain.

Their grandmother, Annie (Amos) Labor, trekked the Trail of Tears. Their mother, Susan Wavedell Johnson, was born in Galena, and moved with husband Everett Sr. to Oklahoma. She was white and age 16 when she united in marriage with her Native American husband. Both Labor boys were born in Bryan County, Oklahoma, the heart of the Choctaw Nation. The Labors Cemetery is located in the county between Bennington and Bokchito. It is an area I am readily familiar with as I was a sports writer for the Durant Daily Democrat, covering Bryan County in the late 1980s.

J. C. Dunn was the skipper for the Dothan Cardinals when Everett arrived in Alabama to pursue his professional baseball career. Dunn, a big man, was a heavy hitter in the low minors. The season previous to Everett’s arrival in Dothan, Dunn was managing the Ardmore Cardinals (Okla.), team when, on August 8, 1957, a man sitting behind the Ardmore dugout fired five .38 caliber slugs into the dugout during a game in Ponca City. Dunn was hit by bullets in the leg and chest. He returned to the lineup August 27. The shooter was a black porter at the Jens-Marie Hotel in Ponca City where the players were staying.  The porter was involved in an altercation with some of the Ardmore people earlier at the hotel. Mike Ryba took over the helm until Dunn’s return. Ryba was a Cardinals scout, primarily in the Midwest where he was familiar with the Labor brothers, and was a former major league pitcher. Dunn passed away at his home in Ardmore on Oct. 24, 1973, when an unknown assailant blasted him to death with a shotgun.

I contacted Ray Nemec in 2005 to see if he had any info on Everett or Ike. It helps with anything to know who to go to. Nemec, then age 76, I knew had traveled the Midwest for three decades and longer tracking down minor league players and teams. Nemec was a founding member in 1971 of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), of which I am a member. He had nothing on Ike but he had the dope on Everett.

Everett E. Labor

Isaiah E. Labor "Ike," 84, of North Little Rock was born July 12, 1937 in Bryan County, Okla., on the Choctaw reservation and passed away Monday, May 30, 2022. Ike is a descendant of Annie Amos who walked the Trail of Tears.
Ike retired from Arkla Gas after 31 years.  
He is survived by his wife, Norma Labor; son, Isaiah Labor Jr. (Sherry); two daughters, Teresa Estell (Mark) and Cynthia Naylor (Randall), and many grandchildren.