Disney, Lillian (1899–1997)
Disney, Lillian (1899–1997)
American philanthropist. Born Lillian Bounds in 1899; died in Los Angeles, California, age 98, on December 16, 1997; daughter of a federal marshal and a homemaker; married Walt Disney (an animator and film producer), in 1925 (died 1966); married John Truyens (a real estate developer), in 1981; children: (first marriage) Diane Disney; Sharon Disney (d. 1993).
Born Lillian Bounds in 1899, the youngest of ten children of a federal marshal, Lillian Disney was raised on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Idaho. In 1923, age 24, she moved to Los Angeles, taking a job as a film-frame inker at $15 per week at the nascent Disney Studio. She married the boss in 1925. For the next 41 years, Lillian was Walt Disney's sounding board. Returning to L.A. from New York in the late 1920s, her husband showed her his sketch of a new character he was proposing, a mouse named Mortimer. "It's too formal. How about Mickey?" she said. Lillian Disney helped found the California Institute of the Arts; she also donated $50 million for an L.A. concert hall.