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Everett “Pee Wee” Haas and his wife, Bertha, made sure their daughters and
grandkids grew up to be Detroit Tigers fans.
Maxine (Haas) Waters, the younger of Everett and Bertha's two daughters, lived in Florida in the 1960s, so Everett and Bertha took their older daughter, Liz, to Lakeland, Fla., every year for nearly four decades to watch the Tigers in spring training.
“They went to spring training for about 37 years, my mom and dad and Liz,” Maxine said. “They always took my kids — Cindy (Leffler) and Don, Rusty and Joe (Waters). I have a picture of Cindy and Don with Casey Stengel. I have upteen pictures of baseball players – some with Liz and some with the kids.”
Liz Haas was as passionate about the Tigers as you can imagine. In fact, if there was a sporting event on television, Liz was probably tuned in.
“She watched sports every day of the year - any sport,” said Maxine, 77. “If Detroit wasn't playing, she was watching somebody else. Liz loved sports. She was handicapped but she would forget she was crippled, because she did a lot. We took her to a lot of sporting events.”
Liz, who contracted polio when she was 4 years old, passed away at age 78 on May 30 at Mercy St. Charles Hospital. She never married and had no children.
“The doctors said it was post-polio syndrome,” Maxine said. “At one time in her life she had (leg) braces and then she got rid of the braces and she could walk. Then it got so she couldn't walk after she had a ball joint taken out of her hip. Then she had uterine cancer and she licked cancer, probably around 2004. She had (home) caregivers. I never left her alone.”
Liz took advantage of all those trips to Lakeland. She had her photo taken with dozens of former Tigers, including Lou Whitaker, Mickey Stanley, Al Kaline, Alan Trammel, Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, Norm Cash, Jim Northrup, Gates Brown and manager Sparky Anderson.
“My mom and dad had a mobile home down there in Lakeland,” Maxine said. “My dad was a big Tigers fan. My mom and I are alike. We never got too interested, we just (casually) followed them.”
Everett and Bertha Haas opened Pee Wee's Dari Snak in Stony Ridge 47 years ago. Maxine, Liz and their mother took over running the business in 1976, and it is still thriving today.
“The house where Liz lived is right next to Pee Wee's,” Maxine said. “I'm not ready to retire. This is our 47th season and I want to make it to 50. My dad built the business and he and my mom worked it, and my sister and I helped them. I have worked there every year since we've had it.
“Liz helped me do a lot. She was always happy. She lived life to the fullest and she liked people. This is a job where you deal with the public and you see people all the time, and we like that.”
Liz, who got around by motorized scooter, never really had a favorite Tigers player. She did, however, have a soft spot in her heart for “Sweet” Lou Whitaker, Detroit's all-star shortstop.
“She met Lou Whitaker in Hawaii, on the beach, and she carried that picture with her in her purse every day,” Maxine said. “We have a room with a lot of Tigers stuff that she got. She's got baseball after baseball; somebody was giving her Tigers Christmas ornaments, and she has all kinds of books with pictures from spring training.
“She would watch football, basketball, soccer, hockey. Baseball was her favorite. She liked college sports, too. She liked the Buckeyes.”
Maxine's grandson, Casey Waters, who was named after Casey Stengel, the famous New York Yankees/Mets manager, lived with Liz in Stony Ridge for nearly three years. Waters, 21, a 2007 Eastwood graduate who worked at Pee Wee's Dari Snak, said he can't watch a Tigers game without thinking of Liz.
“The TV was always on 'The Price is Right' or sports,” he said. “When I visited her in the hospital, we told her the Tigers were going to be on at 10 and my dad (Don) went up there and watched the game with her in the critical care unit. She was the biggest sports fan I know.”
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