Marty Prather, known as "The Sign Man" for the witty signs that he displayed over the decades at St. Louis Cardinals and Missouri State University games, has died.

Prather had been hospitalized with a respiratory illness.

"He lived for the Cardinals," former Missouri State basketball coach Barry Hinson, a close friend of Prather's, said Sunday. "He lived for the Missouri State Bears. He lived for his wife, his daughter and then he's got an 8-month-old grandson.

"He represented what every athlete would like to have in a fan. He was loyal. He was never belligerent. He stood by his team regardless."

Born in 1958 and raised in Ohio, Prather moved to Springfield, Missouri, in 1981, where he operated Domino's Pizza franchises both there and in St. Louis.

Prather became a regular fixture at

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