Individual Record 285
| Name} Kimball, Ward Walrath | Family History} Olson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title} | Race} White | Sex} Male | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth: Date} Exa 4 Mar 1914 | Place} Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marr.: Date} Exa 18 Aug 1936 | Place} Alhambra, Los Angeles, California (Link) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Death: Date} Exa 8 Jul 2002 | Place} Arcadia Methodist Hospital, Arcadia, Los Angeles, California | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial: Date} Cremation | Place} | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grave Marker} |
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| Parents: } Bruce Planck Kimball & Mary Nancy Walrath Relationship No.} None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st Household No.} 308 = Parsons, Labette, Kansas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation 1} Artist/cartoonist Occupation 2} Musician Occupation 3} Train collector | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Religion/Church} | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouses: Prime}
Lawyer, Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Total Number of} 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes: Ward Walrath Kimball was born 4 Mar 1914 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His parents
were Bruce Planck Kimball and Mary Nancy Walrath. Ward had a younger sister,
Mary Eleanor (Eleanor), born in 1917 in Minnesota, and a younger brother, Webster Hazen,
born in 1918 in Kansas. Ward's mother Mary was a graduate of the University of Minnesota, an accomplished pianist, and had a quirky sense of humor. His father Bruce, the son of a lawyer, attended Kansas University, playing on the football team. He did not go into the family investment business, but instead was always on the move, and never very successful. Bruce tried farming, ran a public swimming pool, had a pastry shop, and finally became a traveling salesman for the National Cash Register Company. In the 1920 USA census, Ward W., 6, was living with his parents, Bruce P. Kimball, 30, and Mary N., 28, at 1715 Grand, Parsons City, Labette, Kansas. The 1,954 sq. ft. single family home with 3 bedrooms had been built in 1902. His father was a salesman of cash registers. His siblings were Mary E., 3½, and Webster H., 2. Although 6 years old, Ward was not yet in school. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes: In 1923, the family traveled west by railroad on the Overland
Limited, and south on the Coast Route to sunny Southern California. Always on
the move, the family lived in the Ocean Park section of Los Angeles, Glendale, and
West Covina. Ward attended twenty-two different schools all over the country
before he reached college age. In the 1930 USA census, Ward, 16, was living with his family at 457 S. Coronado St., Ventura, California. The 1,400 sq. ft. single family home, with 3 bedrooms, had been built in 1929, and the rent was $45. His father Bruce, 38, was a salesman of electrical appliances, his mother Mary, 38, a housewife. His siblings were Eleanor, 12, and Webster, 12. He attended the Santa Barbara College and in the fall of 1932, Ward entered the Santa Barbara College of the Arts. In April 1934, Ward began work at the Walt Disney Studio in Los Angeles. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a supervising or directing animator, remaining their until he retired in 1973. He was one of Disney's original "Nine Old Men". In addition to his work on the classic features "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Dumbo", "The Three Caballeros", "Melody Time", "Cinderella", "Alice in Wonderland", and "Mary Poppins", Ward directed the Oscar-winning shorts "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" (1953), and "It's Tough To Be A Bird" (1969). Ward also did three one-hour programs for the Disneyland" TV series, worked on the live-action musical "Babes in Toyland", and directed 43 episodes of "The Mouse Factory". In 1935, a young woman named Betty Lawyer was hired by Disney to work in the ink and paint department. Here she met Ward, and they were married 18 Aug 1936 in her home at 30 N. Third St., Alhambra, California, by the Rev. S.J. Kennedy, a Presbyterian Minister. They spent their honeymoon at Lake Tahoe, returning to live in her parents home. In 1939, they are listed in the Alhambra Directory as living with her parents at 30 N. Third Street, Alhambra. The home that was to become their lifelong family residence, located at 1616* Ardendale Avenue in the unincorporated area of San Gabriel, was built in 1939. It cost $10,000, and they were helped by a $1,000 inheritance from Etta Ward, the woman Ward had been named after. In the 1940 USA census, Ward Kimball, 26 and Betty, 28, and their first daughter, Katherine, 1 month old, were living in their Ardendale Avenue home, San Gabriel, California. Ward was an artist in the movie industry, and had earned $5,000. in the prior year. Their house was now valued at $13,000. Ward had completed one year of college. Ward was an avid collector of model railroad engines and cars, and of full sized trains. In 1938, they bought a vintage 1881 coal burning steam locomotive for $400 from the defunct Nevada Central Railroad. With the help of relatives and friends, including Don Olson, it was unloaded from a truck onto the 900 feet of narrow-gauge rails in the side yard of a their lot on Ardendale. He spent several years restoring it and named it the "Emma Nevada". Over the years he and Betty bought other rolling stock, including a 1907 steam engine named Chloe after one of his daughters. The collection eventually included a 1881 Passenger coach, a 1906 box car, and a caboose. It was complimented by a Victorian-era depot, a windmill, a water tower, and an engine house. "The Kimballs," writes Michael Broggie in Walt Disney's Railroad Story, "became the nation's first private owners and operators of full-sized steam railroad equipment in a residential backyard." Ward would occasionally fire-up and run the trains on the short strip of track, to the delight of friends, neighbors, and relatives.** In later years he had to get the permission of the AQMD to fire them up, as not to add to the pollution in the San Gabriel basin. In addition to the full size trains in their backyard, Ward and Betty built an addition onto their house to hold his collection of model trains and his model train layout. In 1992, after more than 50 years of running the Grizzly Flats Railroad, Ward donated it to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Riverside County, California. He also donated the funds to build an engine house. In 1948, Ward traveled with Walt Disney to the Chicago Railroad Fair, taking the Santa Fe Railway's east-bound Super Chief from the Pasadena train station. Ward's backyard trains were an inspiration for Disney, who developed a small train in his own backyard. This was also the inspiration for the trains at Disneyland. In 1978, Ward served as the conductor on the "Birthday Special", a whistle-stop train tour from Union Station in Los Angeles to New York City in celebration of Mickey Mouse's 50th birthday. Ward also had musical talent, and was an accomplished trombonist. In 1948, he formed a Dixieland Jazz band, "The Firehouse Five, plus Two." The band was made up of Disney personnel, and performed for more than twenty years for various civic functions and at Disneyland. Ward led and played the trombone. The members all dressed in firemen's uniforms, and once when a fire broke out nearby, were asked why they were not fighting the fire. In the 1950 USA census, Ward W. Kimball, 37, and Betty L., 37, were living at 1616 Ardendale, San Gabriel, with their three children, Kelly K., 10, John R., 8, and Chloe, 3. Ward was a artist and musician in the movie industry. He had earned $8,000. in the prior year. On 23 Jan 1988, two light planes collided over the San Gabriel Valley, sending one plummeting onto the front yard of the the Kimball home. Ward, Betty, and Kelly were inside the home, but not injured. Two in the plane died. Ward died 8 Jul 2002 at Arcadia Methodist Hospital from pneumonia complications. Services were private, followed by cremation. *The 1940 and 1950 USA census records and a 1946 newspaper article identified the address as 1616 Ardendale Road. The houses were renumbered at some point in time, and the present address is 8910 Ardendale. **Karen Hancock, as a child and in later years had the opportunity to visit Ward and Betty and enjoy their train yard and collections. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Time of Birth} | Time of Death} | Fraternal/Social} | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Baptism Date} | Place} |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Confirm. Date} | Photos} Ward Kimball in 1994 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Immigr'n Date} N/A | Port} N/A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education: Grade} Trade school or Top 2 Degrees} | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Military: Service} for the State of} | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Health Condition} Cause of Death} Complications, pheumonia |
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| Copyright © 2010 - 2015, 2025 by Karen L. Hancock. All Rights Reserved. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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