Flora Call, mother of Walter and Roy Disney, was born to Charles and Henrietta Call in Steuben, Ohio — near the now famous Cedar Point amusement park — on April 22, 1868. She married Elias Disney (the son of a neighborhood family) in Kismet, Fla., on Jan. 1, 1888 and would later give birth to five children: Herbert, Raymond, Roy, Walter and Ruth. She was of German and English descent and was described as a lively, even-tempered woman, in contrast to her stern, somewhat temperamental husband, who enjoyed playing games and reading stories to his children as well as playing his fiddle. Flora was beloved by her family. After the success of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1938, Walt and Roy presented their parents with a new home in North Hollywood, near the Disney studios in Burbank, Calif. But less than a month after moving in, Flora complained to Walt and Roy of problems with the home’s gas furnace. Studio repairmen were sent to the house, but the problem was not adequately fixed. A few days later, Flora — then 70 — died of asphyxiation caused by the fumes. The tragedy haunted both Walt and Roy and was something they would refused to discuss. Elias survived the gas leak. He died at age 82 on Sept. 13, 1941, while Walt Disney was traveling in South America as part of the U.S. State Department’s Good Neighbor program. Flora and Elias are entombed next to each other at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, Calif.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 16:37:33 +0000
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