Vaughan “Bing” Devine, 1916–2007

Vaughan P. “Bing” Devine was the son of Grover William and Pearl (Palmore) Devine. Grover Devine was born on 9 August 1886 in St. Louis, the son of Thomas and Mathilda Devine. Pearl Palmore was born about 1885 in Missouri, the daughter of Frederick J. Palmore, a farmer from Powhatan County, Virginia, and Cornelia Vaughan.

Vaughan Devine, nicknamed “Bing” by an aunt, was an only child, born on 1 March 1916. Around that time, his father served one year in the Missouri National Guard, private infantry. The family lived on Ashland Avenue in Overland, Missouri, before moving to University City, Missouri, in the 1920s.

By 1930, the Devine family was living at 7567 Stanford Avenue. Grover worked for the St. Louis County Land Title Company in Clayton, first as a title examiner, then as secretary, and eventually, he would become president of that company.

Bing graduated from University City High School in 1933 and continued his education at Washington University, where he graduated in 1938. While he was in college, he played baseball and basketball.

Upon his college graduation, he began a career in professional sports that lasted more than sixty years. In 1939, he started to work with the St. Louis Cardinals as an assistant in the public relations office. He moved into the position of business manager in the farm system, where he stayed until World War II began. He served in the U.S. Navy Fleet Air Wing from 1943 to 1946.

Between 1949 and 1955, Bing Devine worked with the Rochester (N.Y.) Red Wings. He served two times as vice president/general manager of the St. Louis Baseball Cardinals. His first stint with the team was from 1958 to 1964, the year in which Bing was responsible for bringing Lou Brock to the team. From 1965 to 1967, Bing was assistant to the president and then the president of the New York Mets. He returned to St. Louis and resumed leadership of the Cardinals again in 1967, staying on until 1978. The Cardinals won the World Series twice under his leadership, in 1964 and 1967.

Bing was the vice president of player development for the Montreal Expos from 1980 to 1981. After returning to St. Louis, he served as the president of the St. Louis Football Cardinals from 1981 to 1986. Already well into his eighties, Devine served as special scout and advisor to the baseball Cardinals from 1999 until his death, at the age of ninety, on 27 January 2007. He left a wife, Mary, and three grown daughters: Joanne, Janice, and Jane.

Bing Devine was inducted into the University City High School Hall of Fame in 1999. He was also inducted into the St. Louis Area Major League Scouts Hall of Fame, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, and the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame. He was a member of the first class of inductees into the Washington University Athletic Hall of Fame and served as vice president of the St. Louis Sports Commission and the St. Louis Sports Foundation.

(Sources include an interview with Bing Devine before his death, newspaper articles, obituaries, and information from the University City School District)

Written by Ilene Kanfer Murray
March 2022
© 2022, St. Louis Genealogical Society

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Last Modified: 24-Mar-2022 11:54