Aubrey Lee Epps of Memphis, Tennessee. Corporal Epps served with the 4th Marine Division at Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima.
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Aubrey Epps

Marine Corps Service

Aubrey Lee “Yo-Yo” Epps earned the title of United States Marine during World War II and served as a corporal with the 4th Marine Division. A contemporary Marine Corps account identified him as a radio operator aboard a half-track and captain of the division baseball team.

Epps fought through four campaigns with the division. Marine reporting explicitly placed him in the Marshall Islands and at Saipan, while contemporary accounts described him as a veteran of four 4th Marine Division campaigns. The division’s official campaign record identifies those operations as Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima.

On Saipan, Epps found a complete Japanese-made catcher’s outfit in a warehouse. He posed in the captured mask, chest protector, shin guards, and mitt before sending the equipment to entertainer and baseball supporter Joe E. Brown. Epps later played for the Fleet Marine Force team in Hawaii after four campaigns.

Baseball Career

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 3, 1912, Epps began his professional career in 1933. The right-handed catcher batted .301 in 152 games for the Birmingham Barons in 1934, prompting Pittsburgh to acquire him for the following season.

Epps’s entire Major League career came in the second game of a doubleheader against Cincinnati on September 29, 1935. He started behind the plate and went three-for-four with two singles, a triple, and three runs batted in. The Pirates lost 9–6, but Epps finished his Major League career with a .750 batting average and a 2.000 OPS.

He continued in the minor leagues through 1941, playing catcher and outfield in the organizations of the Pirates, Yankees, Giants, and Cubs. Across nine minor-league seasons, Epps batted approximately .290 and reached a career-high 19 home runs in 1941 before military service interrupted his playing career.

Portrait of Aubrey Epps in his Pittsburgh Pirates uniform

Later Life and Legacy

Epps did not return to professional baseball after the war. He died in Ackerman, Mississippi, on November 13, 1984, at age 72 and was buried at Concord Cemetery.

Sources and Further Reading

  1. Camp Lejeune Globe, contemporary account of Epps’s 4th Marine Division service in the Marshalls and at Saipan
  2. The Bend Bulletin, August 15, 1945, identifying Epps as a veteran of four 4th Marine Division campaigns
  3. Camp Lejeune Globe, March 7, 1945, account connecting Epps with the 23rd Marines’ tank outfit during the Iwo Jima campaign
  4. Marine Corps History Division, official 4th Marine Division campaign record
  5. Major League Baseball, Aubrey Epps statistics and biographical data
  6. Baseball-Reference, Aubrey Epps Major League record
  7. Baseball-Reference, Aubrey Epps minor-league record