Little League International mourns the passing of Annie Plankenhorn, the wife of longtime World Series team host Fred Plankenhorn. She was 76.
The Plankenhorns were married in 1966, was which also the first year that Mr. Plankenhorn volunteered his time as a Little League Baseball World Series team host. For 43 years, until his passing in 2010, “Uncle Fred” with Annie’s support, came to be a welcoming figure for hundreds of Little Leaguers® during their World Series experience.
Mrs. Plankenhorn, was a native of Williamsport, Pa., and a 1960 graduate of Williamsport High School. She received a scholarship to the former Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing, and attended Lycoming College as part of the nursing school curriculum. Upon graduation in 1963, she received the John Candor Award in Surgical Nursing and the Francis Costello Surgical Orthopedic Award.
Employed as a registered nurse in the Williamsport Hospital Emergency Room following graduation, Mrs. Plankenhorn later worked for Dr. William D. Todhunter before joining the practice Dr. Lynnwood A. Walmer. She also was a certified registered ophthalmic nurse with Dr. Walmer.
Active in politics, she held the title of Treasurer for the campaigns of Allen E. Ertel between 1976 and 1980, when he was elected to Congress and made an unsuccessful run for the Governorship of Pennsylvania.
Locally, Mrs. Plankenhorn was a past President of the Four Mile (now Schick) Elementary School PTA, Treasurer, Board member and volunteer with the Lycoming County Chapter of the American Red Cross, Board member and Treasurer of the Junior League of Williamsport and Treasurer of the Taylor Ertel Foster Children Scholarship Foundation.
She held numerous offices at The Women’s Club including President between 2010 and 2012, and again from 2016 to August 2018. She received the Woman of the Year Award for community service in 2012. She also was an Assistant Treasurer and Treasurer of the Clio Club of Williamsport.
Mrs. Plankenhorn made medical missionary trips to Third World Countries to assist Dr. Albert A. Alley of Lebanon with cataract surgery. In 2002, she traveled to Nicaragua and to the Dominican Republic and Ecuador in 2004.
She is survived by a son, Christopher; and his wife, Denise; and grandchildren Katie and Ian.