Rocky Mount native Charles Edward Hinton Jr., the last Washington Senators baseball player to hit .300, passed away last week at age 78.

Hinton, known as “Chuck,” grew up in Rocky Mount and attended Booker T. Washington High.

He also was the founder of the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association and was inducted into the Twin County Hall of Fame in 2008.

Hinton was the 1959 Minor League Rookie of the Year, and he won back-to-back batting titles and was named an MVP.

Washington claimed him from the Baltimore Orioles in an expansion draft, and he began playing for the Senators in 1961.

He was the first Senator to bat .300, and he was named an American League All-Star in 1964. Hinton was widely-known as one of the expansion team’s better players, and he led the team in triples and stolen bases for four seasons.

Hinton, who attended Shaw University, is a member of the school’s Hall of Fame as well as the one at Howard, where he spent 28 years as head coach.

He holds the career record for victories by a manager at the school.

Hinton played for the Senators, Cleveland Indians and California Angels during his 11 seasons in the Major Leagues.

Hinton also spent two years in the military, where he played baseball for the Army team in the Special Forces.

“I thought he was going to be the next Willie Mays,” his former Senator teammate Jim Hannan told the Washington Post last week. “He was an exciting player. He could do everything.”

Family and friends will hold a memorial service for Hinton on Friday at East End Baptist Church, 928 E. Highland Avenue in Rocky Mount.

In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made to the Major League Baseball Alumni Association.