37. LILLIAN MARIE⁴ BOUNDS (WILLARD PEHALL³, RACHEL² LINVILLE, THOMAS HUNTER¹) was born 15 Feb 1899 in Spalding, Nez Perce, Idaho, and died 15 Dec 1997 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California^220,221. She married (1) WALTER ELIAS 'WALT' DISNEY 13 Jul 1925 in Lewiston, Nez Perce, Idaho²²², son of ELIAS DISNEY and FLORA CALL. He was born 05 Dec 1901 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, and died 15 Dec 1966 in Burbank, Los Angeles, California^223,224. She married (2) JOHN LOUIS TRUYENS Abt. 1969. He was born 15 May 1907 in Belgium or Luxemburg, and died 24 Feb 1981 in Los Angeles, California^225,226.

Notes for LILLIAN MARIE BOUNDS:

Normal Hill Cemetery

1122 7th Street

Lewiston, Idaho

http://www.lctoday.net/Cemetery/quickfacts.htm

Walt Disney’s mother and father-in-law, Jeanette Bounds and Willard Bounds are buried here.

Location - Division 3, Row 54

http://www.lctoday.net/Cemetery/cemeterycensus2.asp

Last Name: Bounds Bounds

First Name: Willard Jeanette

Middle Name: P.

Born: 1854 1854 - 03

Died: 1916 1930

Buried: 1916-07-26 1932-06-06

Division: 3 3

Row: 54 54

Lot: 076 076

Grave: 01 01

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LILLIAN'S HISTORY WITH WALT DISNEY: 02-04-1996 Marc Eliot, Special Markets Dept. Harper Collins Publisher, NY: [from] "Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince"

There was some rumour/scandal that Walt might be illegimate. A possible son of Senora Zemora and there is no proof of that.

She was 26 years old. Dark haired, heavily penciled eyebrows, red cheeks, strong features, smiled with the slightest upturn corners of a wide mouth. She was born and raised in ID. She came to Hollywood for the first time for a holiday in the summer of 1923. She was visiting her sister. While there met Kathleen who was working for Walt Disney Studios and offered her to get a job with one stipulation: "Don't marry the boss"! Lillian got the job inking and painting, only after seeing Walt did she accept the $15.00 a week job. Walt hired her because her sister lived so close, he would not have to pay extra for car fare on nights she worked late. "One night while both were working late, Walt leaned over to show her something on her art work board and felt the soft brush of her thick hair against his cheek. He breathed her perfume and felt her dress move lightly across his trousers. Without thinking, he kissed her on the back of her neck."

The next day he asked Roy [brother] for a $120.00 advance, $40.00 to buy the new suit he would need to wear at his wedding and $75.00 for a ring. Roy was so happy he insisted they save money and purchase the ring from the same illegal fence who had sold him Edna's [wife]. Roy had asked 3 months before at his own wedding that Lillian stand with his bride Edna. Edna was born in Kansas City and Roy and Edna Francis had been childhood sweethearts. Since Edna knew no one in Hollywood, Roy had asked this new female employee at the studio and he had thoughts she would be a good choice for Walt. Walt had never liked Edna and was upset over the wedding. Roy and Edna were married April 7, 1925. Walt the next day proposed to Lillian, she accepted and they immediately set a date. They were married July 25, 1925 in Lewiston, Idaho at the home of Lillian's brother. Her mother was the only member of either family to attend. Walt did not invite his own parents because of the expense and the physical strain, or Roy whom he still resented for marrying Edna. After the ceremony they boarded a train to Los Angeles. On the way home, Walt developed a toothache and paced the hallways of the train.

LA Times: Thursday, December 18, 1997

LILLIAN DISNEY DIES AT 98; BEGAN CONCERT HALL PROJECT: Entertainment was left a magnificent gift, says Music Center chief. Widow of Walt picked Mickey Mouse's name.

By MYRNA OLIVER and DIANE HAITHMAN

Times Staff Writers:

Lillian Bounds Disney, who gave a world-famous cartoon mouse his name and left as her legacy the impetus for the still-unbuilt Walt Disney concert Hall to honor her late husband has died. She was 98.

Disney died Tuesday in her sleep at her Holmby Hills home, family members said. She had suffered a stroke Monday, 31 years to the day after the death of her innovative animator husband Dec. 16, 1966.

Lillian Disney's first major contribution to the Walt Disney entertainment empire occurred in the 1920s as the young couple were riding a train from New York to Los Angeles. Hoping to turn around a serious business setback, Walt Disney came up with a new character whom he proposed to call Mortimer Mouse.

Not Mortimer, his quiet wife replied. It's too formal. How about Mickey? Mickey Mouse became the company's international symbol. When President Richard Nixon handed the widow a gold commemorative Medal honoring her husband at a White House ceremony in 1969, it was etched with a profile of Walt Disney on one side and Mickey Mouse on the reverse. Mrs. Disney was a full-time partner to Walt, and we are all grateful for her contributions in the creation of Mickey Mouse and the Disney Co. and for the example she set for family life and community service, company chairman Michael D. Eisener said Wednesday. Lillian and Walt Disney and Edna and Roy Disney were pioneers in turning a creative vision through hard work and sacrifice into an American institution. For that, the world is grateful. Always supportive of the arts, Lillian Disney on May 13, 1987, announced the memorial she envisioned for her husband-a world-class concert hall for the city where he had flourished. She handed the Music Center of Los Angeles County $50 million and asked that Walt Disney concert Hall be built across 1st Street from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I have always had a deep love and admiration for my husband, and I wanted to find a way to honor him, as well as give something to Los Angeles which would have lasting qualities, she said in announcing the gift. Walt was active in the formation of the Music Center, and Los Angeles was always the heart and soul of his many businesses and philanthropic endeavors. The thought that a concert hall would be built that would enter6tain the public with the finest musical offerings would be enormously gratifying to him. Lillian Disney's requirements were simple-a hall for the masses, not the elite, and, because of her love of music and flowers, perfect acoustics and a garden. The generous donation stemmed from the $47 million set aside for an unspecified charitable gift in 1982 when the family company, Retlaw Enterprises, sold the rights to Walt Disney's name and likeness to the Walt Disney Co. Her donation for the new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which by now has grown to more than $100 million, earned her a cultural award I 1988 from the Los Angeles Headquarters City Assn.

After a worldwide search, Santa Monica's own internationally respected architect Frank Gehry earned the assignment and set to work.

Lillian Disney was very outspoken about what she wanted, and why she wanted to do it, Gehry recalled Wednesday. She wanted very much for (the hall) to be a wonderful public space that had the kinds of feelings of warmth that (Walt Disney) tried to accomplish in his work. Both she and her daughter Diane kept saying that somehow I had some of the same kind of 'crazy' that Walt had. She was married to a very creative person, so she was open to it, so it was very comfortable for me.

Gehry said that Lillian Disney best loved his interior design and that he gave her a special model of it. He said she cared less about the exterior, leaving it to him but calling frequently to encourage him in what is expected to be a Los Angeles architectural landmark. The concert hall was originally estimated to cost $115 million, with Disney funds and interest expected to pay the bulk of the cost. Groundbreaking was to begin in 1990, and the hall completed in 1993. A symbolic groundbreaking ceremony was held in 1992, but the project was already facing delays and increasing cost estimates. The expected opening date was pushed to 1997. By 1994, alarming new cast projections came in that doubled original estimates. A year later, amid threats from the county to abandon the project, work on the hall was stopped. Fund raising stagnated until late last year, when several gifts infused new life into the foundering project. This Dec. 1, Walt Disney Co. contributed $25 million, which virtually ensures that the hall will at last be built. Construction is now scheduled to begin next year, with the grand opening pegged for 2001. All of us at the Music Center are saddened by the death of Lillian Disney, and we hope very much that we will be able to make her dream of a world-class concert hall a reality by the year 2001, said Andrea Van de Kamp, chairman of the center. She left a magnificent gift in memory of her husband, and we are working very hard to make her dream come true for her daughter, her grandchildren and the citizens of Los Angeles County." Diane Disney Miller, who declined any comment Wednesday, has said previously that her mother remained interested in the hall's progress. Miller has also noted that her mother was encouraged by her friend, Music Center founder Dorothy Chandler, who died earlier this year but always told her, You hand in there, Lily! Ernest Fleischmann, longtime managing director of the orchestra, called Lillian Disney one of the most important figures in the history of the Philharmonic. She's the catalyst, he said Wednesday, for people around the world realizing that the Philharmonic is now an international force to be reckoned withI just wish she had been spared to be there on the opening night. That's the saddest thing about this. Museum of Contemporary Art Director Richard Koshalek, who chaired the committee that selected Gehry as the concert hall architect, said from Japan of Lillian Disney: She had a very quiet sort of demeanor, but it was one with great determination. She had a way of convincing people to do what was right, and that has resulted in the fact that Disney Hall will be built. I liked this lady a lot. Lillian Bounds was born is Spalding, Idaho, the 10th and last child in the music-loving family of Willard and Jeanette Short Bounds. She grew up at Lapwai, Idaho, on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation, where her father worked for the government as a blacksmith and federal marshal. She moved to Los Angeles to join her older sister Hazel in 1923 and, through a friend, got a job at the new Walt Disney Studio as a $15 a week inker of film frames. She met the boss and, on July 13, 1925, married him in Lewiston, Idaho. I think my dad fell in love with her almost immediately. She was a very independent little lady, Diane Disney Miller told The Times earlier this year. Roy E. Disney recalled his aunt Wednesday by saying, She was a great lady, full of laughter and fun and always prepared to speak the truth, tough and loving at the same time. Once you knew her, you'd never forget her. I always thought of the four of them. Walt and Roy (his late father and Walt's brother), Lily and Ednaas true pioneers. If life had required them to pull the wagon train across the country, they'd have done itand done it better that anyone. For 41 years Lillian Disney remained the publicity-shy helpmate, raising their two daughters and serving as a sounding board for her husband's ideas for characters and stories. It was only after Walt Disney's death that she ventured into the community to support causes for young people and the arts. She helped other family member in creating the California Institute of the Arts and operated a foundation that distributed charitable gifts. In 1990, Lillian Disney received the Governor's Award for the Arts in recognition of her contributions to the arts throughout California. Last year, she donated $100,000 to her childhood friends, the Nez Perce tribe, to buy ancient tribal artifacts. In a rare public comment in 1993, she criticized an unflattering biography by Marc Eliot titled, Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince that criticized the couple's marriage and said Walt Disney was an informant for the FBI. We shared a wonderful, exciting life, and we loved every minute of it, she said in a statement. He was a wonderful husband to me and wonderful and joyful father and grandfather. I am distressed to learn of a new book about Walt that actually invents incidents that never happened.

She is survived by Diane Disney Miller of Napa, 10 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Sharon Disney Lund, died of cancer in 1993.

No funeral service will be conducted. The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica.

THE PRESS ENTERPRISE: December 18, 1997

LILLIAN DISNEY, WHO NAMED MICKEY MOUSE, DIES AT 98

By John Horn

The Associated Press Los Angeles:

Lillian Disney, the conservative check to Walt Disney's daring genius, has died. The widowed arts patron was 98. Mrs. Disney died peacefully in her sleep at home late Tuesday, family spokesman Joshua Gertler said Wednesday. She had suffered a stroke early in the morning of Dec. 15-31 years to the day that her husband died. Mrs. Disney did not live to see the completion of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, an addition to the downtown Music Center which she seeded with a $50 million donation 10 years ago. This really is the end of an era for the Disneys, said Walt Disney co. Vice Chairman Roy E. Disney, the son of Walt's late brother, Roy O. Disney. Mrs. Disney was a full-time partner to Walt and we are all grateful for her contributions to the creation of Mickey Mouse and the Disney company, and for the example she set for family life and community service, said Michael D. Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Co. The former Lillian Bounds was married to the studio chief for 41 years. She was her husband's primary sounding board, and he would run his revolutionary ideas-from Snow White to Disneyland-by her for approval. She tended to be the careful balance to her husband's brashness. She was credited with rejecting the name Mortimer for a new mouse character her husband had invented and instead suggesting Mickey. Later in her life, Mrs. Disney was active in fund-raising for the much-delayed Walt Disney Concert hall, a Frank Gehry-designed new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The hall was supposed to be opened by now. But construction funds are still incomplete, and all that sits on the downtown site today is a concrete foundation and a parking structure. The 2350-seat hall is now scheduled to open in 2001. Newly pledged funds bring the total money committed to the project to $160 million, about 80 percent of the amount needed. The Disney Co. recently pledged $25 million. Roy E. Disney followed with a $5 million donation. Born in Spalding, Idaho, in 1899 as the 10th child of Jeanette Short Bounds and Willard Pehall Bounds, Mrs. Disney grew up in Lapwai on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. Mrs. Disney is survived by her daughter, Diane Disney Miller, of Napa, as well as 10 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. A daughter Walt and Lillian adopted, Sharon, died in 1993. There will be no funeral service, the family spokesman said.

Information from Wikipedia:

Lillian Marie Bounds (February 15, 1900 December 16, 1997 was the wife of Walt Disney from 1925 until his death in 1966. She later married John L. Truyens in 1969 and remained married to him until his death in 1981. Lillian was born in Spaulding, Idaho. She and Walt had two daughters - Diane Marie Disney and Sharon Mae Disney, the latter of whom they adopted. Her sister was named Hazel Sewell. She is aunt of Roy Edward Disney and grandmother to Chris Miller, Joanna Miller, Tamara Scheer, Jennifer Miller-Goff, Walter Elias Disney Miller, Ronald Miller and Victoria Brown. Lilly and Walt were married for 41 years, reflecting on her marriage in the 1990's she said "We shared a wonderful, exciting life, and we loved every minute of it. He was a wonderful husband to me and wonderful and joyful father and grandfather" Lillian Disney suffered a stroke on December 15th 1997, exactly 31 years and a day after first husband Walt Disney. She died the following morning, at the home she shared with Walt in Holbmy Hills, Los Angeles. She was 97 at the time of her passing.

In 1987, Lillian Disney pledged $50,000,000 USD towards the construction of a new home for the L.A. Philharmonic. After many delays, the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in 2003, six years after Lillian's death. Her filmography includes work as an ink artist on the film Plane Crazy. She is credited with naming her husband's most famous character, Mickey Mouse, during a train trip from New York to California in 1928. Walt showed a drawing of the cartoon mouse to his wife and told her that he was going to name it "Mortimer Mouse". She replied that the name sounded "too sissified" and suggested "Mickey" instead.

More About LILLIAN MARIE BOUNDS:

Burial: Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, Glendale, Los Angeles, CA²²⁷

Census 1: 1900, ID Nez Perce Spalding ED 89 Pg 2B(See Father)

Census 2: 1910, ID Nez Perce Lapwai ED 222 Pg 6B(See Father)

Census 3: 1920, ID Nez Perce Lewiston ED 146 Pg 17A(See Husband)

Notes for WALTER ELIAS 'WALT' DISNEY:

California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957

Name: Walter Disney

Arrival Date: 14 Nov 1931

Age: 29

Birth Date: 5 Dec 1901

Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, United States

Gender: Male

Ship Name: California

Port of Arrival: Los Angeles, California

Port of Departure: Havana, Cuba

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New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957:

Name: Walter E Disney

Arrival Date: 20 Oct 1941

Estimated birth year: abt 1902

Age: 39

Gender: Male

Port of Departure: Valparaiso, Chile

Ship Name: Santa Clara

Search Ship Database: Search the Santa Clara in the 'Passenger Ships and Images' database

Port of Arrival: New York, New York

Nativity: Illinois

Line: 4

Microfilm Serial: T715

Microfilm Roll: T715_6587

Birth Location: Illinois

Birth Location Other: Chicago, Illinois

Page Number: 123

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New York Times

December 16, 1966

OBITUARY

Walt Disney, 65, Dies on Coast; Founded an Empire on a Mouse

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES

Los Angeles, Dec. 15--Walt Disney, who built his whimsical cartoon world of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs into a $100-million-a-year entertainment empire, died in St. Joseph's Hospital here this morning. He was 65 years old.

His death, at 9:35 A.M., was attributed to acute circulatory collapse. He had undergone surgery at the hospital a month ago for the removal of a lung tumor that was discovered after he entered the hospital for treatment of an old neck injury received in a polo match. On Nov. 30 he re-entered the hospital for a "post-operative checkup."

Just before his last illness, Mr. Disney was supervising the construction of a new Disneyland in Florida, a ski resort in Sequoia National Forest and the renovation of the 10-year-old Disneyland at Anaheim. His motion-picture studio was turning out six new productions and several television shows and he was spearheading the development of the vast University of the Arts, called Cal Art, now under construction here.

Although Mr. Disney held no formal title at Walt Disney Productions, he was in direct charge of the company and was deeply involved in all its operations. Indeed, with the recent decision of Jack L. Warner to sell his interest in the Warner Brothers studio, Mr. Disney was the last of Hollywood's veteran moviemakers who remained in personal control of a major studio.

Roy Disney, Walt Disney's 74-year-old brother, who is president and chairman of Walt Disney Productions and who directs its financial operations, said:

"We will continue to operate Walt's company in the way that he had established and guided it. All of the plans for the future that Walt had begun will continue to move ahead."

Besides his brother, Mr. Disney is survived by his widow, Lillian, two daughters, Mrs. Ron Miller and Mrs. Robert Brown.

A private funeral service will be held at a time to be announced.

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1930 Census CA Los Angeles Los Angeles ED 4 Pg 1A

Line 27

2495 7 8 Disney Walter E Head MW 28 M 24 IL Canada OH Producer Motion Pictures

-----------, Lillian B Wife FW 30 M 26 ID ID WA

Line 29

2491 8 9 Disney Roy O Head MW 36 M 31 IL Canada OH Sound Recorder Motion Pictures

-----------, Edna Wife FW 40 M 35 KS MO WI

-----------, Roy E Son MW 3/12 S CA IL KS

Francis Lettie M Mother-in-law FW 63 Wd 20 WI OH PA

More About WALTER ELIAS 'WALT' DISNEY:

Burial: Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, CA²²⁸

More About WALTER DISNEY and LILLIAN BOUNDS:

Marriage: 13 Jul 1925, Lewiston, Nez Perce, Idaho²²⁹

Notes for JOHN LOUIS TRUYENS:

U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946

about John L Truyens

Name: John L Truyens

Birth Year: 1907

Race: White, citizen (White)

Nativity State or Country: Belgium or Luxemburg

State: California

County or City: Los Angeles

Enlistment Date: 26 Jul 1942

Enlistment State: California

Enlistment City: Los Angeles

Branch: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA

Branch Code: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA

Grade: Private

Grade Code: Private

Term of Enlistment: Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law

Source: Civil Life

Education: 2 years of college

Civil Occupation: Actor (Motion picture actor. ) or Director, Motion Picture (Motion picture director.) or Entertainer

Marital Status: Single, with dependents

Height: 70

Weight: 065

More About JOHN TRUYENS and LILLIAN BOUNDS:

Marriage: Abt. 1969

Children of LILLIAN BOUNDS and WALTER DISNEY are: