Hattie Gubel, 96, will be laid to rest in Phillies team cap and T-shirt

As she's laid to rest today, 96-year-old Hattie Gubel's final outfit will be her favorite - a Phillies cap and T-shirt.

"She wanted to die a fan," said her great-nephew, Daniel Bachove. "We're going to have her funeral in a chapel but she would have probably rather had it at Citizens Bank Park."

A baseball from one of the last games she went to will be placed by her side and mourners who attend her funeral are required to wear Phillies hats.

Hattie was the ultimate Phillies fan. As she once said in an interview with the Daily News:"If you're a Philadelphian and

you're not a Phillies fan, something's wrong with you."

As a child, Hattie sat on her porch listening to the crowds in Shibe Park. Even after moving to Florida two years ago, she remained faithful. The last thing she did before being admitted to the hospital the final time was watch a Phillies game. At a bar. When it was 103 degrees outside.

She never had kids and her husband died 30 years ago. One of 11 children, Hattie watched as each of the brothers and sisters she was close with died. Bachove, 34, believes it was her love of the Phillies that kept her going.

"I truly believe if it wasn't for the Phillies . . . I don't know if she would have made it to 96," he said.

After Hattie moved to Fort Lauderdale to be close to Bachove - a fellow Phillie-phile - they would attend games when the Phils were in spring training or playing the Florida Marlins. In 2008 Bachove scored World Series tickets and took his great- aunt.In 2009, for her 95th birthday, Hattie got to meet her heartthrob - manager Charlie Manuel - whose photo she kept in her wallet and by her bedside.

"She really liked men and she really liked Charlie," Bachove said. "She was kind of a flirt."

By the time she died last Thursday, Hattie had amassed 1,036 Facebook friends.

"I just learned of Miss Hattie's passing," one friend wrote.

"We've never met, but I am writing this through tears because we both shared a love for our 'home' teams."

One commenter even suggested Hattie deserves her own memorial statue or plaque at Citizens Bank Park.

"Any time I hear that the Phillies fans are the worst in the country, I will tell people to look up Hattie," one woman wrote.

Bachove recalled a Phillies-Marlins game where Hattie sat next to a 10-year-old boy, whom she thought was very nice at first.

When the Marlins got the lead on the Phillies though, the boy began screaming "Your team sucks!" in Hattie's face.

"So the seventh inning came along and all of a sudden the Phillies started taking off and this little boy had the saddest face on," Bachove said. "I think she said 'Good for him.' "

But when the Marlins lost and the little boy "cried like a baby," Bachove said Hattie got out of her chair and hugged him. 'It's OK,' she said to him. 'Your team will win tomorrow night.' "

Hattie Gubel's funeral will be held at noon today at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks, 6410 N. Broad Street.

It's open to the public - as long as you're wearing a Phillies cap.