Mary Louise Lester

{{Short description|American baseball player (1919–1977)}}

{{Infobox baseball biography

| name = Mary Louise Lester

| image = Mary Louise Lester.jpg

| image_size = 175px

| team = All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

| position = Second base

| birth_date = {{birth date|1919|01|19|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Nashville, Tennessee

| death_date = {{death date and age|1977|12|20|1919|1|19}}

| death_place = Nashville, Tennessee

| bats = Right

| throws = Right

| teams =

• Kenosha Comets (1943)
• South Bend Blue Sox (1944)

|highlights =

• Women in Baseball – AAGPBL Permanent Display at Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (1988)

}}

Mary Louise Lester (January 19, 1919 – December 20, 1977), later known as Mary Louise Luster,{{cite web|title=Why Kids Don't Fluster Miss Luster|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91877916/the-tennessean/|date=August 10, 1969|newspaper=The Tennessean|page=135|access-date=January 4, 2022|archive-date=January 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105033633/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91877916/the-tennessean/|url-status=live}} {{Free access}} was an American infielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at {{height|ft=5|in=3}}, 138 lb, Lester batted and threw right-handed. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee.{{cite news|url=https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/mary-louise-lester/34|title=Mary Louise Lester – Profile|work=All-American Girls Professional Baseball League|accessdate=2019-06-01|archive-date=2019-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526221721/https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/mary-louise-lester/34|url-status=live}}

Mary Louise Lester was one of the original founding members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in its 1943 inaugural season.The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Softcover, 295 pp. Language: English. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-2263-0}}

In 1943, Lester attended the final tryouts of the league at Wrigley Field. Once the final cut was made, Lester and another 59 of the 280 girls who tried out were chosen to become the first women to ever play professional baseball. She was relocated to the Kenosha Comets,{{cite news|url=https://www.aagpbl.org/teams/kenosha-comets/1943|title=1943 Kenosha Comets|work=All-American Girls Professional Baseball League|accessdate=2019-06-01}} playing for them one year before joining the South Bend Blue Sox{{cite news|url=https://www.aagpbl.org/teams/south-bend-blue-sox/1944|title=1944 South Bend Blue Sox|work=All-American Girls Professional Baseball League|accessdate=2019-06-01|archive-date=2019-06-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601224022/https://www.aagpbl.org/teams/south-bend-blue-sox/1944|url-status=live}} in the 1944 season.

Lester was used as a backup infielder, serving primarily as a backup at second base while hitting a .186 average in 112 career games. She could not be reached after leaving the league in 1944.The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

Mary Louise Lester is part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled in {{baseball year|1988}} to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She died in Nashville on December 20, 1977, at the age of 58.{{Cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91878015/obituary-for-luster/ |title=Obituary of Mary Louise Luster |access-date=2022-01-05 |archive-date=2022-01-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105033632/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91878015/obituary-for-luster/ |url-status=live }}