Lavonne Paire-Davis: Baseball player

Lavonne "Pepper" Paire-Davis, who died on 2 February aged 88, was a star of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s and an inspiration for the film A League Of Their Own. Paire-Davis was a model for the character played by Geena Davis and served as a consultant on the 1992 film.

In 1944 she joined the women's baseball league, created in fear that the Second World War would interrupt Major League Baseball, and played for 10 seasons. The catcher and shortstop, who helped her teams win five championships, chronicled her adventures in the 2009 book Dirt In The Skirt.