Cryo-Ted Drama Goes To White House

Ted Williams' oldest daughter is urging President Bush, his father and former astronaut John Glenn to help stop her half brother from keeping the body of the baseball great in deep freeze.

In an open letter released Wednesday night, Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell said that her father wished to be cremated, not frozen at a cryonics lab in Arizona.

Ferrell has accused her half brother, John Henry Williams, of having their father's body moved to Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., where bodies are frozen. Ferrell has said John Henry Williams wants to preserve their father's body for possible future financial gain.

Williams, the last major league hitter to bat better than .400 in a season, died Friday in Florida at 83.

"I need anyone and everyone, famous or not, if they have knowledge about my Daddy's wishes to be cremated to stand up and be heard at this time," Ferrell said.

She called on Glenn, a former U.S. Senator who flew with Ted Williams when both were fighter pilots in the Korean War, and President Bush and his father, former President Bush, to help her fight her half brother.

"John Glenn appreciated my Daddy's being his wingman. I want John Glenn to come forward now and come to his friend's aid," Ferrell said. "President Bush and his father need to come forward and 'work in this campaign' for your old friend — liked he worked for you."

Williams' will said he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes scattered in the Florida Keys, an attorney for the baseball great's daughter said Tuesday.

John Heer, an attorney for Williams' daughter, said he hadn't read the will, but attorneys for Williams' estate had told him the slugger's wishes.

"All versions were consistent that he wanted to be cremated and his ashes would have been spread over the Florida Keys," Heer said from his Cleveland office. Williams was an avid angler who fished for decades in the Keys.

Pam Price and Bill Boyles, attorneys for the Williams' estate, didn't immediately return a phone call to their Orlando office.

Ferrell says John Henry Williams wants to preserve their father's DNA, perhaps to sell it in the future.

Ferrell's husband, Frederick "Mark" Ferrell, said Williams' son first proposed the idea of freezing Williams' body more than a year ago.

Contrary to some published reports, Mark Ferrell said his wife was not estranged from her father. She was estranged from her half brother over what to do about their father's body.

"He proposed the cryonics thing to my wife, and she went nuts and said, 'You're not going to do it to my dad,'" Mark Ferrell said. "There was no estrangement between Ted and his daughter. The estrangement was caused by the cryonics issue in June 2001, and it was caused by John Henry, not Ted Williams."

Heer said that attorneys for the estate planned to file the will with the Florida courts, and had planned to ask the courts to referee the battle over Williams' remains. He said he and his client would see what happens before deciding on whether to take further legal action.