For longtime Texarkana resident Freddy Mann, memories of the Texarkana Bears bring back days when her late husband Milton would oversee the field.

He was an umpire in the Big State League for a couple years when the Bears played here in Texarkana.

Originally from the Manhattan borough of New York City, Freddy’s husband came here after World War II. He’d served nearby in the Armed Forces during the war years, and he eventually met and married Freddy in February 1953.

“He stayed in until ‘58,” she said about his umpire days. From Texarkana, he went on to ump...