Adam: Thank you for posting a beautiful example of Hank's 1952 Topps card.
Henry Curtis “Hank” Thompson was born in Oklahoma on December 8, 1925. Most sources list his birthplace as Oklahoma City, but in a 1965 interview, Hank claimed he was born 125 miles away in Muskogee. His father, Ollie Thompson, was a railroad worker who liked his liquor. His mother, Iona, was a cook and domestic worker. The family moved to Dallas, Texas, when Hank was an infant. His parents separated when he was still a youngster and divorced shortly thereafter. Young Hank lived with his mother, and it was the job of an older sister, Florence, to watch him while mom was at work – a job that proved too much for the young girl.
Growing up, Hank eschewed school for the streets of Dallas. At age 11, he had his first official brush with the law when he was picked up on suspicion of swiping some jewelry from a car, a crime he claimed he didn’t commit. Either the cops believed his protestations of innocence or couldn’t prove his guilt, so they busted him for truancy instead and shipped him to Gatesville Reform School, about 115 miles from Dallas.
Gatesville had a baseball program in which Hank got his first chance to play on an organized team. It motivated the youngster to keep his nose clean, but when he got out, he was sent to live with his father for a year. Thompson claimed that his father wouldn’t let him play ball and often beat him, so he was glad to go back to live with his mother.
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