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Page
27 of 28 |
Vision
of the Future: |
Walt's
Death |
Marc Davis came to work for
Walt in 1935 during
the production of 'Snow White', and
continued to make major contributions 31
years later, when Walt died.
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He had lunch with John Hench
and a few others and told them about the cancer.
He asked them about their current projects
and then returned with them to the WED offices.
"When he got over there, his voice took on
enthusiasm and deepened," said Hench. "We
had a few laughs and went over a few things.
. . . We went over the Moon Ride. We had a
full-scale mock-up of a space center control
room, with which he checked out the viewing
angles from public areas. He was interested
in seeing how the ideas suggested at the last
meeting had worked out. And he came over to
see the pirate ride mock-up." Walt then walked
over to artist Marc Davis' office, where he
chuckled at sketches of bears that Davis was
preparing for Mineral King. Davis commented
on how much weight Walt had lost, "He looked
at me with big, sad eyes," recalls Davis,
"and God, I could have bitten my tongue off."
When he left, "I stayed at the door," the
artist remembered, "and watched him walk down
the hall. He was, I guess, about 50 feet away.
He turned and said, 'Good-bye Marc.' He never
said good-bye. It was always, 'See ya later.' |
Walt told everyone at the studio
and WED that with the removal of the one lung
he was practically good as new. But rumors
flew. He was back at the studio the next couple
of days, visiting the set of "Blackbeard's
Ghost." The next day was Thanksgiving, which
Walt and Lilly celebrated with the Miller
family. "We were sitting there," Diane recalled,
"and that's when I brought him a drink and
a little dish. And he said, 'I don't smoke,
kid. But they're still not sure that smoking
causes lung cancer.' He couldn't admit that
maybe it did. I had gotten on his back the
last five years of his life about smoking.
I said, 'You've got to stop it, Daddy. You've
got to cut it out. At least smoke filter tips.
He'd say, 'Knock if off, kid.'"
After a one-night stay
in Palm Springs, he was back in the hospital
on November 30. From there, his health failed
far more rapidly than the doctors, or his
family, had anticipated. "I trusted the doctors,"
said Lilly. "I really didn't know he was going
to go. Neither did he. We had a trip planned
for him to recover." The last days of his
life Walt was heavily sedated -- and in some
pain.
Every year for decades, Walt
had sent his sister Ruth a Christmas letter,
accompanied by a check. In 1966 the letter
was written by his secretary, Tommie Wilck.
After a little small talk, she wrote, "When
Walt is back in his office, I'm sure you'll
get a more up-to-date and personal note from
him. In the meantime, he sends his love."
The night before he died, Roy visited and
reported that Walt was staring at the ceiling
and pointing to where everything was going
to fall at EPCOT, including the entrance and
exit roads. On December 15, 1966, Walt died. |
EPCOT was the last project
on Walt's
mind when he died. According
to Roy,
Walt was still planning the
lay-out
using the ceiling tiles above
his
hospital bed as a grid reference.
|
Walt had just turned 65 when
he died
on December 15, 1966
|
Diane: "Mother called us --
we lived nearby -- and said the hospital called
and said there's been a turn for the worse.
I quickly drove over to pick her up. I remember
it took her forever to get dressed. Meticulously
putting on her earrings. I was impatient to
get there. I think Mother and I both knew,
without saying it. Ron was there ahead of
us. As we came down the hall, I saw Ron start
into the room, and back out, as if someone
had pushed him out. I don't think he expected
to find Dad dead. I did. And then we went
in and Roy was already there, standing at
the foot of his bed, with his hand on one
of Dad's feet, kind of rubbing his feet, with
that sweet half smile that was always his
expression. And he was saying something, I
forget exactly what it was -- nothing corny
or trite or anything. Something loving. The
older brother. Then my brother-in-law Bob
came to the room with Sharon. I had some kind
of peculiar energy. Bob asked me to take her
in. And I did, and I put her hand on Dad's
and she said, "Now Daddy, now you won't hurt
anymore." After he left the room, Roy's grief
was intense. "I'd never seen him cry," said
his daughter-in-law Patty. "And I put my arm
around him and he walked away. He wanted to
be alone." |
Ruth was stunned to hear the
news on the radio. "It was said so casual,"
she recalled with a tone of disbelief in her
voice. "Then right on to the next item." "It
was a great shock," said his niece Dorothy
Puder. "I don't think I realized that he was
that near death." Marvin Davis ? a studio
designer who had married Walt's niece Marjorie
-- was in a conference room at WED. "Margie
called me and I excused myself, and I went
out and came back and said, 'Well, gentlemen,
I'm afraid I have bad news.' And everybody's
faces all dropped. They knew exactly what
it was."
"I don't think he
believed it would ever happen," said Ward
Kimball. "I don't think he accepted it, knowing
Walt. Not until he closed his eyes for the
last time was he ever convinced."
. |
Ward Kimball said of Walt's
death that
'I don't think he accepted
it, knowing Walt'. Ward,
one of Walt's 'Nine Old Men', died
in 2002.
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