The Beardsley family was a large family and the inspiration for Yours, Mine and Ours . In 1961, a widow with 8 children married a widower with 10 children drawing a big crowd and national coverage. The marriage lasted until Helen's death due to Parkinson's disease. She had 44 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren at the time.
Full Answer
How many children did the Beardsley family have?
The Beardsley family was a large family and the inspiration for Yours, Mine and Ours . In 1961, a widow with 8 children married a widower with 10 children drawing a big crowd and national coverage.
What happened to Frank Beardsley's first wife?
Frank and Helen Beardsley's marriage lasted until her death in Healdsburg, California, on April 26, 2000, aged 70, from Parkinson's disease and a stroke. Frank Beardsley later remarried. He died on December 11, 2012 at 97.
What happened to the Beardsleys?
A bread company hired the Beardsleys to do a commercial and posted a family photograph on its trucks. Shortly after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Beardsley appeared on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight” show. (Mr. Carson described their life as “Camp Run Amok,” one of their sons, Gregory, recalled, adding, “But we were pretty organized, actually.”)
What is the Beardsley/North family famous for?
What North describes as “the myth of the movie” made the Beardsley/North family internationally famous. Frank Beardsley was a widower with 10 children who, in 1961, married Helen North, a widow with eight kids of her own, including Tom.
How many grandchildren does Michael Beardsley have?
Mr. Beardsley is also survived by about 60 grandchildren and about 24 great-grandchildren, Michael Beardsley said.
Why did Frank Beardsley buy the sandstones?
Frank Beardsley, a retired Navy chief warrant officer, had bought them in large quantity at a naval base store so that he would always be ready to refit his children’s growing feet.
How many children did Henry Fonda have?
He had 20 children. Rather, he and the former Helen North had 20 after merging two very large families in a second marriage for both, he as a widower and she as a widow. Their union prompted wide media coverage and inspired a book and two movies titled “ Yours, Mine and Ours ,” the first starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball.
Who credited his parents with not overplaying the family's fame?
Gregory Beardsley credited his parents with not overplaying the family’s fame. “My parents,” he told The Monterey County Herald, “always used to remind us, ‘You’re only 5 percent of the equation, so 5 percent of a celebrity isn’t too much to brag about.’. ”. Advertisement.
Did the Beardsleys get a commercial?
The attention did not end. Tour buses stopped outside their home. A bread company hired the Beardsleys to do a commercial and posted a family photograph on its trucks. Shortly after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Beardsley appeared on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight” show. (Mr. Carson described their life as “Camp Run Amok,” one of their sons, Gregory, recalled, adding, “But we were pretty organized, actually.”)
Who was Frank Beardsley's wife?
Frank Beardsley was a widower with 10 children who, in 1961, married Helen North , a widow with eight kids of her own, including Tom. Together they had two more, creating the clan of 20 kids that Fonda and Lucille Ball (as Helen) parented in the movie.
When did Helen Beardsley die?
Helen Beardsley left Frank late in life, but never divorced him. She died in April 2000, shortly after her 70th birthday. At her own request, she was buried in Washington alongside Richard North, her first husband. Frank Beardsley died in 2012 at age 97.
How many kids did Fonda and Lucille Ball have?
Together they had two more, creating the clan of 20 kids that Fonda and Lucille Ball (as Helen) parented in the movie. For North, now 59 and still living in Carmel, writing “the real story” was cathartic — another step in a lifelong healing process for himself and many of his siblings. But “True North” also has driven a wedge between two sides ...
Why did Helen Beardsley marry Helen Beardsley?
After they were married, Helen Beardsley”s tunnel-visioned goal was to maintain the family”s “Yours, Mine and Ours” image at all costs, her son says.
Where did Helen North move to?
Helen North moved her family to California, where she met 45-year-old Frank Beardsley, a personnel officer at the Naval Postgraduate School. They merged the two families on Sept. 9, 1961, in a huge wedding at the Carmel Mission, then produced two more children of their own within three years, creating a household of 22.
Who was Tom North's wife?
They also thanked me and said, ”What you are doing is giving us a voice we never had.””. In 1981, Tom North married Connie Willert, who literally lived next door to the Beardsley home (though a quarter mile away) when she was a child, and graduated two years behind him at Carmel High.
Who played the Beardsleys in True North?
The cast of the movie also included Van Johnson, Tom Bosley and child actor Tim Matheson. “The Queen of Comedy” visited the Beardsleys” large Carmel home on Rio Road for several days in advance of the shoot to get a feel for the family, and, according to “True North,” apparently sensed something wasn”t quite right with the family she had expected ...
Why did Frank and Helen have additional kids?
Frank and Helen figured from the start that they would probably have additional kids together because of how they felt about each other.
Who said the whole family is the most wonderful group of people I have ever met?
John Dorn, the husband (separated) of Rosemary , says "the whole family is the most wonderful group of people I have ever met!" He also shares this tidbit, one of Frank's common sayings:
Why are Frank and Helen hesitant to adopt?
The children are portrayed as WANTING the adoption to happen, while Frank and Helen seem hesitatant because of criticism from strangers (and one of Dick's relatives) suggesting Dick would have wanted his children to remain "stamped" with his name.
How many children did Frank and Helen have?
This photo shows all 20 children, including the two Helen and Frank had after they got married (Joseph and Helen).
When did Charles die?
Charles died in San Francisco at the age of 82 on August 18th, 1956. Frank's mother, Mary Ellen Grennan was born on May 28th, 1876 in California. Note that Frank gave his daugher Mary his mom's name and he gave Susan his mom's middle name. Mary Beardsley also died in her 80's and she too died in San Francisco.
Is Frank Beardsley married?
The real "Yours, Mine and Ours" family. Yes, there really was a Frank Beardsley and Helen North Beardsley, and they really did get married (on Sept. 9, 1961) and create a family with 18 children (eventually 20). In fact, they're so real, legal trouble broke out between the YOURS MINE & OURS filmmakers and the BRADY BUNCH tv people ...
Who changed their names in the movie North?
Janette, Nick, Tom, Phillip and Gerald ALL changed their names back to North! This is particularly intriguing in the cases of Phillip and Gerald, who were quite young (both under 4) when their biological father died.
How many children did Helen Beardsley have?
Helen Eileen Beardsley (née Brandmeir, formerly North; April 5, 1930 – April 26, 2000) was the mother of a noted blended family of twenty children — eight by her first marriage to Richard North, ten stepchildren from her second husband Frank Beardsley, and two that she and Frank had during their marriage.
When did Frank Beardsley retire?
After 30 years in the Navy, Frank Beardsley retired in 1966. Looking to buy a business, in 1968 he bought a nut and candy store named Morrow's Nut House in Monterey, California.
Who was Helen Beardsley married to?
She then married, secondly, on September 9, 1961 to Chief Warrant Officer Francis Louis "Frank" Beardsley, USN , who at the time served as Personnel Officer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. A widower, Frank Beardsley brought 10 children from his first marriage; combined with Helen's eight children ...
Who said "I have only three kids"?
The family had just left the stage, and the show had cut to a commercial break. Johnny Carson was in awe of the huge family and he said, "I have only three kids. I don't know how they do it." Someone in the seats stood up and hollered, "Oh, yes, you do!"
What issues did Frank Beardsley have?
Frank Beardsley, as described in the book, clearly had issues with inappropriate behavior to some of the children, as well as with anger and violence. Tom North coordinates with his siblings to arrange some group meetings with any of the family members who choose to attend.
How many people were in Frank Beardsley's house?
With 20 hungry people in the house (many of them with the voracious appetites teens are known to have), food was sometimes limited, and North says Frank Beardsley was generally accorded the best of each meal, while the children were given the fillers.
How many children did the Fonda family have?
For those who might be unfamiliar with the 1968 classic film (starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda), the movie captured audiences of all ages with its almost formulaic depiction of a couple who met after each was tragically widowed, fell in love, and merged a total of 18 children into one family.
How old was Dick North when his father died?
North provides specific, anecdotal (and believable, due to the level of detail) examples of a home atmosphere dominated by fear and abuse. North was only six when his beloved father died. Dick North was only 30, and left behind a young widow, his seven children and an eighth on the way.
Who is Marcy Goodfleisch?
Marcy Goodfleisch (author) from Planet Earth on June 12, 2015:
Who did Helen North marry?
Helen North married Frank Beardsley a year or so after she was widowed (and not long after Frank's wife died). According to her son, she spent considerable energy trying to protect her children from Frank's abusive behaviors. And insisting that the outside world should never be privy to what went on inside the walls of the home.
Who gets the drumstick Tom North?
According to North (Tom North's true story), life was ruled by Frank Beardsley's angry and militaristic personality.
How old was Lucille Ball when she became a widow?
It says in that article that the woman Lucille Ball played in the movie was only 30 years old when she became a widow and was at the time pregnant with her EIGHTH child. Evidently she was a baby machine. Not long after she became a widow she remarried to an Army officer who had ten children. Obviously that was a recipe for disaster. I guess she just needed a man. But it's too bad her children had to suffer because their mother didn't want to be alone. The mother must have been pretty screwed up; what made her want to marry an authoritarian guy with ten kids? For the "security?" How much security can you have with a guy who has ten kids? It all seems just so crazy.
Did Lucille Ball have plastic surgery?
Supposedly Lucille Ball had very thin, sensitive skin that didn't heal very well. She had some kind of plastic surgery, an eye job I think, but it took months to heal so she didn't attempt to have anything else done. For the rest of her life she wore heavy makeup and was filmed with a soft-focus (VERY soft focus) lens in order to appear younger, but it didn't work. She always looked like a heavily made up old woman with incongruous bright orange hair.
Was Frank Beardsley cruel?
Apparently, the real Frank Beardsley was abusive and cruel. I really want to read this book now.
