Stan Paregien, Editor
Nellie Snyder Yost
(Deceased)
Nellie Snyder Yost was born Nellie Snyder in a sod house in McPherson County, Neb., in 1905. Her full height, as an adult, was just 4'8". She lived in North Platt, Neb., for most of her adult life.
She and her father told the story of his early ranching days in a book called Pinnacle Jake (1951). She and John Leakey wrote, The West That Was: From Texas to Montana (1958). Her third book, No Time On My Hands (1963), was the story of the life of her mother, Grace McCance Snyder. Her mother was regarded as the finest quilt maker in Nebraska.
Nellie Snyder Yost also wrote Call of the Range: The Story of the Nebraska Stock Growers Association (1966). Her fifth nonfiction book was Boss Cowman (1969), a book for which she received her first Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.
She also wrote Medicine Lodge: The Story of a Kansas Frontier Town (1970), Buffalo Bill and His Home Town (1974), Before Today (1977), Buffalo Bill: His Family, FRiends, Fame, Failures and Fortunes (1978), and A Man As Big As The West (1979.
She joined the WWA in 1967 and attended every convention through 1987. She served as secretary-treasurer of WWA from 1971 to 1979. In 1975 WWA bestowed upon her the cherished Saddleman Award "for bringing dignity and honor to the history and legends of the West."
At the 1985 WWA Convention she received the "Stirrup Award" for her article, "The Endless Trail", in the Roundup magazine (March-April, 1984). Yost won a Spur Award from WWA in 1986 for her article, "The National Game Out West," published in Frontier Times magazine, for the best western short nonfiction article for 1986.
In 1986 she won a second Stirrup Award for her article, "The Day I Turned the Night Horse Out," published in the Sept., 1986 issue of the Roundup.
PERSONAL NOTE: I had the pleasure of knowing this witty, lovely lady. And I interviewed her at the WWA convention in Fort Worth in June of 1986. (That's when I took the photo shown above.) That interview was published in the Nov.-Dec. issue of The Roundup, pp. 10-11.
Yost was named to the 35th addition of Who's Who in America. She thus became only the 19th member of WWA to be so honored.
John V. Young
John V. Young was born on Jan. 25, 1909.From 1928 to 1930, he worked on various small weekly newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area of California as a reporter and editor. He was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury Herald (1931-35) and for the Salinas (Calif.) Index-Journal & Morning Post (1936). He returned to the San Jose newspaper as City Editor from 1937 to 1942.
John V. Young held a war-time job with an electronics manufacturer in San Bruno, CA., from 1942-45. Then he worked for twenty years (1946-66) as the director of personnel and public relations at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in Los Alamos, NM.
Young started freelance writing in 1964 on a part-time basis. In 1966, upon his retirement from the Lab, he became a full-time freelance writer. His many articles appeared in Sunset, Westways, Ford Times, Travel, New York Times Sunday Travel Section, Travel Trailer, and National Tombstone Epitaph.
John V. Young's books included Ghost Towns of the Santa Cruuz Mountains (1979; rev. and updated, 1984), Hot Type and Piny Wire (1980), State Parks of New Mexico (1984), State Parks of Arizona (1986), and State Parks in Utah (1989).
Loretta Young
(Deceased)
Loretta Young had her first starring role in 1928 in the movie, "Laugh, Clown, Laugh," with Lon Chaney. She was fifteen. She went on to make 88 movies, her last in 1953.
By the age of 17 she had eloped with actor Grant Withers. That marriage lasted for just eight months before she divorced him.
Her Western credits included "The Call of the Wild" (1935) with Clark Gable, "Ramona" (1936), and "The Lady from Cheyenne(1941). Her (adopted?) daughter, Judy Lewis, in 1994 published a book titled, Uncommon Knowledge. In in Lewis claims that she was not adopted, that she was in fact the love child of an affair between her mother and Clark Gable. Young never commented on it in public.
Belgium card of Gable & YoungIn 1940 she married Thomas Lewis, a broadcast executive, and had two sons (Peter and Christopher). They were separated for several years before divorcing in 1969. Then in 1993, at the age of 80, she married 85-year-old Jean Louis, a fashion designer. He died in 1997.
She won an Oscar on March 20, 1948 for her role in "The Farmer's Daughter" (1947).
When she stopped making movies, she found a new career on TV. She starred in three series, "A Letter to Loretta" (1953-54), "The Loretta Young Show" (1954-61), and "The New Loretta Young Show" (1962-63). She made two made-for-TV movies: "Christmas Eve" (1986) and "Lady in a Corner" (1989)."
Loretta Young was a staunch Catholic who worked hard for various church charities. When filming, she often "fined" workers who cussed on the set a quarter which she would put in her personal "kitty" for charity.
She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 87 on Aug. 12, 2000. She died at the home of her sister, Mrs. Cicardo (Georgiana) Montalban.
Robert Young
(Deceased)
Robert Young, actor, was born Robert George Young on Feb. 22, 1907 in Chicago, IL. He was reared in the Los Angeles, CA., area.
Young's acting career began in 1931 with a minor part in an MGM film. He achieved stardom later that same year as the romantic male lead opposite Helen Hayes in the film "The Sin of Madelon Claudet."
Young also appeared in such well-remembered movies as Sitting Pretty, Northwest Passage, and Journey for Margaret. Critics said that he had no sex appeal, and in his movies he seldom was the one who was the hero who won the girl. He specialized in "warm-fuzzy" roles and stayed very busy, often doing ten movies a year.
His Western movie credits included Western Union (1941) and The Half-Breed (1952).
He went on to even greater success in two long-running TV shows that were among the most popular of their respective decades. Young originated a show called "Father Knows Best" on radio in 1949. It moved to television in 1954. He won two Emmys for his role as the all-knowing father, Jim Anderson. It was so popular that CBS continued it in primetime reruns for two seasons after Young left the series in 1960.
Robert Young had another hit with "Marcus Welby, M.D." The show ran on ABC from 1969 to 1976. Young's role as a general practitioner who strove to understand patients' hopes and fears-- as well as their diseases --brought him praise from medical groups. And he won his third and final Emmy for his role as Dr. Welby.
Who knows what Young might have achieved if he had not been plagued with a 30-year history of alcoholism and depression. He conquered the alcoholism in the late 1970's, but bouts of depression lingered. In January, 1991, he made a suicide attempt. Young tried to end his life by running a hose from his car's exhaust pipe to the interior of the vehicle. The attempt failed because the battery was dead and the car wouldn't start. He was 83 at the time.
He was married to Elizabeth Louise Henderson, his high school sweetheart, from 1933 until her death in 1994.
Robert Young died of respiratory failure on Tuesday evening, Jan. 21, 1998, at his home in Westlake Village, CA. He was 91 years of age. He was interred at Forest Lawn (Glendale), Glendale, California, USA, in the Graceland section, lot #5905.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Robert Young.
Victor Sen Yung
(Deceased)
Victor Sen Yung was born as Sen Yung on Oct. 18, 1915 in San Francisco, CA.
He played the part of "No. 2 Son, " Jimmy Chan, in Sidney Toler's Charlie Chan movies of the 1930's and 1940's.
He is perhaps more familiar to today's TV audiences as Hop Sing, the ranch cook, in "Bonanza." He appeared in this popular TV Western from 1959 to 1973.
He appeared in some 70 movies, including such Western films as "A Ticket to Tomahawk" (1950), "The Groom Wore Spurs" (1951), "Jubilee Trail" (1954) and "The Red Pony" (1973, TV). 
Victor Sen Yung died of accidental asphixiation on Nov. 9, 1980 in North Hollywood, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Victor Sen Yung.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
--- Bible: Proverbs 1:7
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
