Meadowlark Lemon
Meadow "Meadowlark" Lemon III (April 25, 1932 – December 27, 2015) was an American basketball player, actor, and Christian minister.[2] For 22 years, Lemon was known as the "Clown Prince" of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.
Meadowlark Lemon | |
|---|---|
 Lemon in 1988 | |
| Born | Meadow Lemon III[1] April 25, 1932 |
| Died | December 27, 2015 (aged 83) |
| Occupation | Basketball player, actor, minister |
| Known for | The Harlem Globetrotters |
| Spouse(s) | Cynthia Lemon (m. 1994–2015) |
| Children | 10 |
Lemon played in more than 16,000 games for the Globetrotters[2] and is a 2003 inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.[3][4] He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina.
He studied at a historically black college, Florida A&M University in 1952, but was drafted into the US Army before he could finish.[3] The Globetrotters first became aware of Lemon in 1954 while he was in Austria in the army and they were touring Europe.[3]
Lemon died on December 27, 2015 in Scottsdale, Arizona, aged 83.[5]
The White House
Lemon visited the White House to meet President Gerald Ford and First Lady, Betty Ford in 1974.[2]
Lemon says: "I was also a good friend of the Reagan's [sic] because I'm also an actor. I worked closely with Nancy Reagan on her 'Just say no to drugs' program."[2] This was a program started by First Lady Reagan to discourage illegal drug use by young people.
Later life
A born-again Christian, Lemon became an ordained minister[2] in 1986. He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Vision International University in San Diego, California, in 1988.
In 2009, Lemon became a part-owner of the Smoky Mountain Jam of the American Basketball Association.[6] This was a semi-professional men's basketball league that was formed in 1999.
References
- ↑ "Meadowlark Lemon Biography." Archived 2014-05-22 at the Wayback Machine www.meadowlarklemon.org. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Raul Barrigon (23 August 2014). "Meadowlark Lemon: "Michael Jordan wanted to be like me"". USA Today Sports. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Why Meadowlark Lemon was of his time but also ahead of his time". ESPN. 28 December 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
- ↑ "Biography at Basketball Hall of Fame website". Archived from the original on 2009-07-31. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
- ↑ Weber, Bruce (December 28, 2015), "Meadowlark Lemon, Harlem Globetrotter Who Played Basketball and Pranks With Virtuosity, Dies at 83", The New York Times
- ↑ Dave Link. (May 14, 2009). "Meadowlark Lemon to back ABA team". Knoxville News Sentinel. Archived from the original on May 1, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2015.