Kansas City, Mo. ? Friends and strangers alike gathered Saturday at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil.

O’Neil died Friday night from complications of congestive heart failure and recently diagnosed bone-marrow cancer at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, said Bob Kendrick, marketing director for the museum. O’Neil was 94.

Baseballs left on a table at the museum, signed by dozens of his fans, told stories of how he touched their lives. Flowers were clumped on another table near a portrait of the dapper, gregarious man who came to embody the story of the Negro Leagues.

“We lost, obviously, a great piece of not only sports history, but American history with the death of Buck O’Neil,” said Kendrick, who smiled when he said O’Neil had rested comfortably during his last few hours.

O’Neil will lie in state Friday at the museum’s Field of Legends gallery, where well-wishers can pay their respects free of a charge. A private funeral and burial service are scheduled for Oct. 14 at a place and time to be determined, and a separate memorial service open to the public will follow.

“Buck was 94 years old. Buck lived a wonderful life,” Kendrick said. “But Buck knew, as well as we all knew, none of us are born to live forever. The great man that he was, the great mind that he was, the great visionary that he was, he prepared us for this day.”

Bob Kendrick, director of marketing for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, addresses an audience during a news conference Saturday in Kansas City, Mo., to report the death of Buck O'Neil. O'Neil died Friday at age 94.

Kendrick said he hoped the John “Buck” O’Neil Education and Research Center, to be located in the old Paseo YMCA around the corner from the museum in the city’s historic 18th and Vine district, would serve as a tribute to O’Neil. It was in that building decades ago that the Negro Leagues were formed.

A celebration of O’Neil’s 95th birthday will go on as scheduled Nov. 11 at Kansas City’s Starlight Theatre. The guest list of about 750 includes many baseball greats, as well as other celebrities and political leaders.

And because O’Neil “never missed an opportunity to talk to a woman in a red dress,” Kendrick said all women are asked to wear that color.

His legacy is virtually unmatched, becoming “an overnight sensation at 82,” as O’Neil liked to say, when Ken Burns featured him in his epic documentary, “Baseball.”

He was a two-time Negro Leagues batting champion, war veteran and manager of the Kansas City Monarchs. When that club was sold, he caught on with the Chicago Cubs, becoming the first black coach in the major leagues.

O’Neil returned to scouting a few years later and continued with the Cubs until 1988, when his hometown Royals gave him a job as a scout at home games. He attended nearly every game at Kauffman Stadium for years, while dedicating himself to building the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig asked for a moment of silence to be observed before Saturday’s playoff games, giving O’Neil a moment in the spotlight on the fields and in the stadiums where we was so often denied as a player.

“He always had a kind word to say about the game of baseball, regardless of what was going on,” said St. Louis hitting coach Hal McRae, a longtime Royals player who also managed the team. “It was fun to talk to him about the old Negro League, what was going on in the game. He was great for the game.”