James Cool Papa Bell

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Bell was born on May 17, 1903, in Starkville, Mississippi, to Jonas Bell and Mary Nichols.The 1910 U.S. Census shows him as the fourth of seven children living with his widowed mother, Mary Nichols, in Sessums Township, just outside Starkville. His brother Fred Bell also played baseball. As a teenager, Bell worked at the creamery at Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Mississippi State University, and at the school's agricultural experiment station.