Sports

Daughter of MLB great Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter dies suddenly after school fire drill

The daughter of Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter died Thursday after collapsing during a fire drill at an elementary school in North Carolina, reports say.

Kim Hunter Daughtery, a 45-year-old fifth-grade teacher at Hertford Grammar School, died after having an undisclosed medical emergency in the presence of a school nurse at about 10:30 a.m., Perquimans County Schools assistant superintendent James Bunch told the Virginian-Pilot.

Daughtery had told school staffers earlier in the day that she wasn’t feeling well.

“She was a great teacher, a great colleague and she was loved,” Bunch told the newspaper.

Daugherty died of complications related to a pulmonary embolism, the district’s superintendent, Matthew Cheeseman, told WAVY.

Daughtery was a 19-year employee of the district and spent the last six years at Hertford Grammar School, which canceled classes at 1 p.m. Thursday and was closed on Friday following her death, according to the station.

Students did not witness Daughtery’s death, WAVY reports.

Daughtery’s father, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, won 224 games as a right-handed pitcher for the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees from 1965 through 1979. The eight-time All-Star was also a five-time World Series champion and led the American League in earned-run average in 1974. He died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, at his North Carolina home in Hertford in 1999.