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Doctor: Ted Williams's son was devoted, not exploitive By Associated Press, 07/11/02 GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A doctor who treated Ted Williams in his last days said the baseball great's son wanted to freeze his father's body out of love and respect, not for financial gain. John Henry Williams was a devoted son and recent reports that he is exploiting his father "have saddened us," said Dr. A. Joseph Layon, who treated the slugger at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. "My sense of John was of a kid who adored his dad and would do anything and everything for him," Layon told The Gainesville Sun. "I never got a sense of an exploitative relationship, or that he saw his dad as a meal ticket." The baseball legend's daughter, Barbara Joyce Williams Ferrell, has accused her half brother, John Henry Williams, of moving their father's body from a Florida funeral home to Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., where bodies are frozen. Ferrell says John Henry Williams wants to preserve their father's DNA, perhaps to sell it in the future. Also, Ferrell on Wednesday called on President George W. Bush and former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn to come forward if they have any information about her father's last wishes. Glenn served as a fighter pilot with Williams in Korea; Williams trained with George Bush, the president's father, in World War II, and campaigned for both presidents. Lawyers for Williams's estate plan to file in the next few days his will and a motion asking a Florida judge to determine if John Henry followed his father's wishes in sending his body to the Arizona cryonics warehouse for deep freezing. Meanwhile, a former personal assistant to Ted Williams said the Hall of Famer often signed legal and financial documents without understanding their content or even being able to read them in his waning days. The assistant, John Sullivan, told The Boston Globe that he often was asked by John Henry to sign documents as a third-party witness. Williams often would ask afterward what they had just signed, Sullivan said. "He signed things and he didn't have a clue as to what they were. I would swear to that," said Sullivan, 72, of Crystal River, Fla., who worked for Williams for four years before stomach cancer forced him to retire in 2000. "Ted would just kind of do what he was directed." Layon said the son spoke of freezing his father two years ago when the three men were on an air ambulance from San Diego to Florida. "John mentioned he had been studying cryo-preservation and wanted to do it for his dad," Layon said. "I do believe this was a manifestation of his respect, love, maybe almost reverence for his dad, maybe to keep him alive for ... people who love baseball and those who appreciate someone who gave his all. "In that sense, it was not out of character for John. It was a meaningful, respectful thing, but I don't think it was something pathologic or exploitative," he said. But one of Ted Williams's friends at the Hernando condominium he lived at in the 1980s described the father-son relationship as "strained," although affectionate. "John Henry loved his dad. I don't think that ever was in question," Joe Rigney said. "I do know that he pressured his dad to sign a lot of balls." Williams, the last major league hitter to bat better than .400 in a season, died Friday in Florida at 83.
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