Born in 1884, died in 1966. Active community leader, serving as president of the YWCA, College Club, Visiting Nurses League and Washington School PTA. Active in Community Concert Association, American Association of University Women, Fort Wayne Art School, Needlework Guild, Fortnightly Club and First Presbyterian Church. Read more in In Celebration of Women's History Month: Fort Wayne Women remembered at Lindenwood Cemetery by Nancy McCammon-Hansen published March 12, 2014 in History Center Notes & Queries blog.
Yaste, Omer
Saturday, October 1, 2022 post by the Historic 07 District - Fort Wayne on Facebook:
The Omer Yaste home is for sale. This beautiful house on an acre of property is perfect for anyone wanting space to spread out while also enjoying the culture of the ’07 and southside. This home plays a part in a larger story, perhaps one unknown to many of you. The story revolves around patents, electric works, millions of dollars, the Statue of Liberty, and the formation of Woodhurst itself. Read on to learn more, and check out the link below if you are interested in moving to this beautiful home.
Today’s story begins where another one ends. The Yaste family farm was originally what is today much of Woodhurst. Jacob and Emma built a home for their son, right next to their own home, at 5310 Fairfield Avenue in the late 1920s/early 1930s. Unfortunately, the Great Depression set in, and Jacob passed away in 1936. At that time, the Yaste family farm was sold off along with the home at 5310 Fairfield Avenue.
The eventual owner of this farmland was Nellie B. Wood. Born in Ohio in 1896, she married one of the wealthiest individuals in Fort Wayne, James J. Wood. When they married, she was only 19, and James was 30 years older and on his third marriage. Nellie had recently come to Fort Wayne to work for a magazine. Although even her parents were unaware of the wedding, James had a storied and lucrative career as an inventor.
James, born in Ireland, came to the United States in the 1860s. Wasting no time, he patented his first invention at 24 and went on to have 240 patents. Putting that into context, the great Thomas Edison had 1,000 patents. James was so prolific that at the age of 29, he was responsible for installing the first floodlight system for the Statue of Liberty! In the late 1880s, he, along with his company, moved to Fort Wayne, ultimately becoming a part of the Fort Wayne Electric Light company. Wood became the factory manager and continued producing inventions for many years.
By 1928, he was 72, married to Nellie, and had lung issues. His wealth allowed him to seek what was then world-class healthcare in Asheville, NC. Based on the “climatic theory” that Asheville had the altitude, atmosphere, and climate to heal tuberculosis, the area became one of the nation’s best-known centers for treating TB and an internationally recognized center of treatment and research for TB lasting more than 50 years. Unfortunately, James passed away in Asheville, leaving his vast properties and wealth to Nellie and his children.
Perhaps the following might give you an idea of his wealth. In his will, he left the equivalent of a $250,000 trust fund for his brother, a $500,000 trust fund for his sister, and 1/3rd of everything else to Nellie. His wealth allowed his first wife to stay in New York City hotels, not moving to Fort Wayne, such as the expensive Astor Hotel. Part of this expansive estate included the Yaste farm, bringing us back to the home at 5310 Fairfield. While Nellie lived downtown in a beautiful and vast mansion (at the corner of Clay and Main), she owned the farmland that ultimately became Woodhurst.
Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana on September 4, 1928. His parents house lived at 2901 Lillie Street [ Google Street View photo ]. He is best known for his role on the Bewitched television show as Darrin Stephens. He left the cast of Bewitched in 1969 because of chronic back problems. He passed away at his home in Rockford, Michigan on February 20, 1992.
February 20, 2023 post by Classic Retrovision Milestones on Facebook:
Richard Allen "Dick" York (September 4, 1928 – February 20, 1992) died 31 years ago today at the age of 63. Best remembered for his role as the first Darrin Stephens on the ABC television fantasy sitcom Bewitched. His best known motion picture role was as teacher Bertram Cates in the 1960 film Inherit the Wind.
Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, York grew up in Chicago, where a Catholic nun first recognized his vocal promise. He began his career at the age of 15 as the star of the CBS radio program That Brewster Boy. He also appeared in hundreds of other radio shows and instructional films before heading to New York City, where he acted on Broadway in Tea and Sympathy and Bus Stop. He performed with stars including Paul Muni and Joanne Woodward in live television broadcasts and with Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon and Glenn Ford in movies, including My Sister Eileen and Cowboy.
It was while filming the 1959 movie They Came to Cordura with Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth that York would receive a permanently disabling back injury. In York's own words: "Gary Cooper and I were propelling a handcar carrying several 'wounded' men down [the] railroad track. I was on the bottom stroke of this sort of teeter-totter mechanism that made the handcar run. I was just lifting the handle up as the director yelled 'cut!' and one of the "wounded" cast members reached up and grabbed the handle. I was suddenly, jarringly, lifting his entire weight off the flatbed—one hundred and eighty pounds or so. The muscles along the right side of my back tore. They just snapped and let loose. And that was the start of it all: the pain, the painkillers, the addiction, the lost career."
In 1960, he played the role of Bertram Cates (modelled on John Thomas Scopes, of "Monkey Trial" fame) in the film version of Inherit the Wind.
York went on to star with Gene Kelly and Leo G. Carroll in the ABC television comedy/drama Going My Way. York was cast in the series as Tom Colwell, who operates a secular youth center.
York appeared in dozens of episodes of now-classic television series, including Justice, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Untouchables, Rawhide, The Americans, Wagon Train, Father Knows Best, and CBS's The Twilight Zone and Route 66.
York was cast as the first Darrin Stephens in the 1960s sitcom, Bewitched, as Samantha's (Elizabeth Montgomery) mortal husband. The show was a huge success and York was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1968. Because of his back injury, which sometimes caused him to seize up in debilitating pain in later years, the scripts for some of his final episodes on Bewitched were written around his being in bed or on the couch for the entire episode. While filming the fifth season-episode "Daddy Does His Thing," York fell ill: "I was too sick to go on. I had a temperature of 105, full of strong antibiotics, for almost 10 days. I went to work that day but I was sick. I lay in my dressing room after being in make-up, waiting to be called on the set. They knew I was feeling pretty rotten, and they tried to give me time to rest. I kept having chills. This was the middle of the summer and I was wearing a sheepskin jacket and I was chilling. I was shaking all over. Then, while sitting on a scaffolding with Maurice Evans, being lit for a special effects scene: They were setting an inky - that's a little tiny spot[light] that was supposed to be just flickering over my eyes. That flickering, flickering flickering made me feel weird. And I'm sitting on this platform up in the air...and I turned to Gibby, who was just down below, and I said, 'Gibby, I think I have to get down.' He started to help me down and that's the last thing I remember until I woke up on the floor. That's about all I remember of the incident...and I'd managed to bite a very large hole in the side of my tongue before they could pry my teeth apart."
From York's hospital bed, he and director William Asher discussed York's future. "Do you want to quit?" Asher asked. "If it's all right with you, Billy," York replied. With that, York left the show to devote himself to recovery. From season six until the series ended in 1972, the role of Darrin Stephens was played by actor Dick Sargent. Sargent was originally offered the role of Darrin in 1964, but turned it down to do a short-lived sitcom called Broadside.
Largely bedridden, York battled not only his back pain but an addiction to prescription pain killers.
In his memoir, The Seesaw Girl and Me, published posthumously, he describes the struggle to break his addiction and to come to grips with the loss of his career. The book is in large part a love letter to his wife, Joan (née Alt), the seesaw girl of the title, who stuck with him through the hard times. York eventually beat his addiction and tried to revive his career. He appeared on several prime-time television series including Simon & Simon and Fantasy Island.
York, a three-pack-a-day smoker, spent his final years battling emphysema. While bedridden in his Rockford, Michigan, home, he founded Acting for Life, a private charity to help the homeless and others in need. Using his telephone as his pulpit, York motivated politicians, business people, and the general public to contribute supplies and money.
Despite his suffering, York said, "I've been blessed. I have no complaints. I've been surrounded by people in radio, on stage and in motion pictures and television who love me. The things that have gone wrong have been simply physical things.
York died of complications from emphysema at Blodgett Hospital in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, on February 20, 1992 at age 63. He is buried in Plainfield Cemetery in Rockford, Michigan.
January 10, 1933-March 25, 2015, born in Detroit, MI to the late Edward John McFarlin and Frances Claire Bogart (originally Zofia Kukulka), siblings, Arlene Baker, Mary Ellen (Michael) Shingleston, Diane Distelrath and Daniel Distelrath; nine children, John (Janet) Young Jr., Julie (David) Glant, Jeanette Young, Jain (David Greene) Young, James (Karen) Young, Jerome (Trish) Young, Jeffrey (Rebecca) Young, Joel (Tammy) Young, and Janelle Young, and preceded in death by her husband John William Young and her brother Robert Distelrath from Dignity Memorial obituary. One of the founders of the Three Rivers Food Co-op in the 1970s. Gathering planned to remember one of food co-op's founders by Cindy Larson published July 20, 2015 in The News-Sentinel newspaper.
