Mr. Thomas Hickman Scott, better known as “Hickie”, a resident of Sarasota, Fla., died at home Tuesday, July 2, 2019. He is survived by his wife, Sally Ann Lankford Scott. Together they celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary on June 12, 2019. He was the son of Thomas S. Scott and Betty Hickman Scott.
He attended Bloxom School and Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Del. His childhood dream was to become a professional baseball player. In 1948, Mr. Scott pitched the championship game to give Bloxom High its first and only baseball championship. In 1949, he was signed by the Boston Braves and the High Point, N.C., farm team of the Braves. He was drafted by the U.S. Army the next two years and was in the Signal Corps in Korea for 15 months during the Korean conflict. He returned to baseball after his service in the U.S. Army, but his career ended abruptly when he suffered a catastrophic injury to his pitching arm during a pitch. His skills as a pitcher are memorialized in the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame in Salisbury, Md. After baseball, he worked until retirement with NASA, starting during the early days of the U.S. space program at Cape Canaveral, in Florida, and then at Wallops on the Eastern Shore.
Mr. Scott is also survived by his son, Preston Thomas Scott, currently a resident of Sarasota, Fla.; granddaughters, Katie Scott and her husband, Brian Seidenfeld, and Christina Dubner and her husband, Seth Dubner; and great-grandchildren, Ema and Ben Seidenfeld and Wells Dubner, all of Washington, D.C.
Funeral services will be conducted from the graveside at the Parksley Cemetery Saturday, July 6, 2019, at 11 a.m., with Mr. George Fulk officiating.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Tidewell Hospice Ellenton, Philanthropy Department, 5955 Rand Boulevard, Sarasota, FL 34238 (www.tidewellhospice.org).
Memory tributes may be shared with the family at www.williamsfuneralhomes.com
Arrangements were made by the Williams-Parksley Funeral Home.