Toy Story 5 Disney

[Terina]

OnValentine's Day, there are a number of great Disney love stories that could be the topic of a column. I debated about doing a column focusing on Mickey Mouse and Minnie celebrating their 90th anniversary later this year, and then realized that it might be more interesting to focus on their real life surrogates: Walt Disney and his wife Lillian.

Walt and Lillian both shared quite a few similar qualities with the early version of their animated alter-egos. Walt's optimism, friendliness and playfulness are well represented in Mickey Mouse. Lilly's independence, focus on being a good homemaker and not putting up with any nonsense are shown clearly in Minnie.

The Disney family was actually quite shy and modest and kept their private life very private so it is difficult to find specifics about their personal lives especially about the special affection between Walt and Lilly.

Even though Lillian did a small handful of interviews, she remains a bit of a mystery and is usually defined by her accomplishments, like making sure Mickey was not named Mortimer and opposing Walt's plans to make an animated feature and then later Disneyland as well as other things because it might put the family in financial jeopardy.

Like her daughters, she was quite jealous that she had to share Walt with the rest of the world and his work. However, Walt and Lillian remained happily married for more than 40 years until his death. That is not to say they didn't have arguments or that Lilly didn't occasionally lock him out of the house when she got mad at him, but they were always physically affectionate.

The Disney family remembers that Walt would never come into the house without hugging and kissing Lilly and always spoke proudly about her. He deferred to her authority about anything related to the house, always gave her the window seat on a plane when they traveled, and allowed her to pick the rooms at a hotel.

Lillian Marie Bounds was born in Spalding, Idaho, on February 15, 1899. She kept the year of her birth secret thoughout her entire life, since she was roughly 3 years older than Walt and did not want to seem like a cradle robber.

While today that may seem amusing, in the era when she lived, it was a very real concern, just as the adoption of her daughter Sharon was not publicized because of the possible reaction from some people. Lillian personally asked author Bob Thomas not to include her birth year or Sharon's adoptive status in his biography of her husband and he agreed. (That information now appears in the revised version published after her death.)

After she graduated Lapwai High School, she and her mother moved to Lewiston where she attended a year of business college. In December 1923, she decided to accept an invitation from her older sister Hazel Sewell and move to Los Angeles, California to live with Sewell, her husband, and daughter.

Hazel had a friend, Kathleen Dollard, who was working as an ink and paint girl at the Disney Brothers Studios on the Alice Comedies series. When the brothers asked her if she knew anyone else who was reliable who might be able to help out with the work, Dollard suggested Lillian, because her training as a stenographer would give her a steady hand and her need to find a job.

One morning this girl came down and said, 'Would you like a job?' and I said, 'Doing what?' And she said, 'Well, I'm working for these two fellows up there, making cartoons, and they need somebody to fill in the ink'. Anyway, it was close so I could walk to work and save on bus fare so I said 'yes' and took the job. She would do the inking and I would do the painting filling in the spaces.

They tried to use me as a secretary but I wasn't very good at it. So I went back to painting. I made fifteen dollars a week. And sometimes Roy would ask me to hold off on cashing the check right away so that they would use that little bit of money to pay their bills. I was living with my sister so didn't immediately need the money so I had a handful of uncashed checks.

Actually, it was Walt who was the one who was flirtatious, just like Mickey Mouse, who verges on sexual harassment when he tries to force Minnie repeatedly to kiss him in Plane Crazy (1928). Minnie chooses to jump out of the plane instead.

Lillian started working at the studio officially on January 19. 1924, and was almost 26 years old. She was short, slender, had a strong Midwestern face and stylish dark hair. She was a little timid at the size of Los Angeles compared to Lewiston and so her seven year old niece, Marjorie, accompanied her that first day so she wouldn't get lost.

Even though she lived within walking distance of the Disney Brothers Studio, Walt would drive her and Dollard home, but would drop her off last even though she lived closer. It was during those rides and conversations that she started to become attracted to this magnetic man who seemed so interested in her stories and family.

They almost dated by default. Lillian had no other gentleman callers and Walt didn't seem interested in seeing other women. Obviously, the closeness in the small studio and the long hours together helped create a sense of intimacy.

Walt was ashamed of how he dressed and asked if he got a new suit whether he could meet her family. Lillian told him her sister didn't care about Walt's clothes, but he bought a suit anyway. Hazel and her husband were entertaining friends, when Walt walked into their living room for the first time and proudly showed off his new suit. Lillian found it endearing and her family liked Walt immediately.

Aunt Lilly was warm. She was gentle. She was a real lady, always. And a very caring person. My mother played the guitar and she and Aunt Lilly had two other sisters who also had beautiful voices. It was a very musical family. They loved harmonizing together. Very talented without any training. Aunt Lilly made me clothes for my dolls.

Walt was at our house an awful lot. My mother was an excellent cook and we never could really decide whether he was there because of Aunt Lilly or because of my mother's cooking. But I guess it was Aunt Lilly.

I slept on the sofa in the living room and he would come over and he and Aunt Lilly would be together and talking and whatever they were doing, and I was moved into her bed in her bedroom so they could have some privacy. Then, when he was ready to go, he carried me down back to the sofa. He was the only one that ever got me into that bed that I didn't fall out of it.

Roy O. Disney and his sweetheart Edna got married on April 11, 1925 and Walt and Lillian had already grown so close she was Edna's maid of honor. Home movies show Walt giving Lillian a lengthy kiss on camera and a big bear hug.

Approximately a year and a half after she started working at the studio, and just three months after Roy and Edna's wedding, Lillian and Walt were married on July 13, 1925 in Lewiston, Idaho by Reverend D.J.W. Somerville, Rector Protestant Episcopal Church of the Nativity. Her sister Hazel B. Sewell and brother Sydney O. Bounds were witnesses.

The couple honeymooned at Mount Rainier National Park and then Seattle. Unfortunately, on their wedding night, Walt had a toothache so painful that he could not sleep (Walt had lifelong dental problems) and spent the evening wandering the train, even helping the porter shine shoes until the train stopped in the morning and he could find a dentist. The rest of the honeymoon proceeded without incident.

I've always teased Walt that the reason he asked me to marry him so soon after Roy married Edna Francis was that he needed somebody to fix his meals. But I have one comforting thought. Food isn't that important to Walt.

Walt would make sure he was home for dinner every night at 7:30 p.m. and once their daughters got married and had left the house, they would still eat dinner on TV trays together and watch their favorite shows like Groucho Marx in You Bet Your Life.

Following the death of Walt, she became quite active in a variety of charitable programs. She helped found the California Institute of the Arts. She donated to many causes, including a $100,000 gift to the Nez Perce Indians to help in the purchase of tribal artifacts in 1996.

Lillian died peacefully in her sleep at the home she and Walt shared on Carolwood Drive on Tuesday December 16, 1997, following a stroke that she suffered early in the morning of December 15. Ironically, Walt Disney died 31 years earlier, early in the morning of December 15, 1966.

Lillian was survived by one daughter (Diane) as well as 10 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. There was no funeral service. Like Walt, she was cremated and her ashes were interred just below Walt's in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.

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