His parents were Wilford "Bill" Moroni Yorgason and Mary Luella "Lulu" Larsen, and he was their second son. He was born at St. Joe (aka Saint Joe), an unincorporated district in Big Horn county, Wyoming, a few miles from Burlington and across the Greybull River. He was born near the end of his parents' brief marriage. In his WWII draft registration form, his place of birth was listed as Basin, Wyoming.
His mother divorced his father due to his father's insane rage which appeared if, at any kind of social gathering, she spoke to any man besides her husband. After his parents' divorce, he stayed with his mother in Jerome, Idaho.
His mother remarried and the family moved to rural Montana, where his step-father worked in an isolated location as a railroad telegrapher. His mother had a third child, a son, with her new husband, and when her father-in-law in Kansas passed away from old age, she decided to stay put in Montana rather than have the entire family travel to the funeral in Kansas. His step-father brought the toddler with him to the funeral in Kansas, but on the trip back to Montana the baby died, presumably from pneumonia. Within a year, the family moved to Jerome, Idaho, to be closer to his mother's brothers. His maternal grandmother left her husband and moved in the with family.
Within two years after moving to Jerome, Idaho, his step-father succumbed to tuberculosis, his grandmother died from stomach cancer, and his mother re-married, her third marriage, which did not last a year.
In 1922, his father's mental health became a matter for the courts in Utah. After 15 months in jail, his father was found "not guilty by reason of insanity" for the murder of his second wife Elsie Rosenthal Yorgason. After a brief stay in the Provo Sanitarium, his father was released to his younger brother Ernest Yorgason in Idaho, in 1924.
During the summer of 1925, between his sophomore and junior years at high school, Willard Yorgason worked as a messboy on the SS West Cayote, traveling from Portland, Oregon to Yokohama, Japan to San Francisco, California. He was 16 at the time, and lied about his age. It seems an extreme way to spend one's summer vacation, but it did get him well away from the drama in Idaho.
Changing his first name to Wallace, he settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1930s, along with his older brother Oren. Their somewhat-rehabilitated father, who had many paternal first cousins living in the area, had settled in northern California in the late 1920s, and while there his father was married and divorced twice more, before marrying his fifth wife Vera, an attractive young Finnish-American woman of limited capacity, to whom he was married for over 20 years.
Wallace was briefly married, but he was a drinker, and after the failure of his first marriage to Cleve "Claire" Mullaly, in San Francisco, he moved to Austin, Texas where he worked as an advertising salesman for the new AM radio station, KNOW.
Missouri marriage records show that his second wife stated that her name was Evelyn Josephine Noble, [her maiden name was Evelyn Josephine Little] and she claimed to have been born in Texas. They were married within a week after the finalization of his divorce from his first wife. At that point in time, the couple had been living together as man and wife in Austin, and raising their child, so they traveled out of state to Missouri in order to be married.
Willard/Wallace was known to be the father of two sons, one with each of his wives. The first son was named Jon Michael Yorgason at birth, with a name change to Jon Michael Buchholdt after his first wife's remarriage to LeRoy Buchholdt in Salt Lake City, Utah. His second son, with his wife Evelyn, was named John Yorgason. In 1996, the records of Yorgason family genealogist (and Willard/Wallace's first cousin) Ruby Yorgason Hurren showed that this second son was later known as John Lee Hughes.
The exact circumstances of Willard/Wallace Yorgason's death are unknown. It was said that he died unexpectedly and alone in a hotel room "back East" during a business trip. It was also said that he had been murdered because "he knew too much." A death certificate obtained in February 2023 by the son of his first cousin Ruby Yorgason Hurren shows that Wallace N. Yorgason died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Johnston Emergency Hospital. The cause of death was heart disease and heart failure, specifically "coronary arterio sclerosis and fibrous myocarditis."
There was no autopsy. His cremation at Forest Home crematorium in Milwaukee was on May 7, 1946, the day after the local Medical Examiner signed off on his death certificate.
His ashes were eventually sent to his brother Oren Yorgason in Montclair, Oakland, California. Oren Yorgason and his Engstrom half-brothers agreed that Willard/Wallace's ashes should be eventually and informally buried with their mother, Mary Luella Larsen Yorgason Engstrom Cromer Thomas, during her funeral in Yuba City, California in 1958. In 2009, Ruby Engstrom, widow of Lloyd Engstrom, verified that Willard Yorgason's ashes had been added to the gravesite of Mary Luella [also spelled Louella] Thomas.
His mother divorced his father due to his father's insane rage which appeared if, at any kind of social gathering, she spoke to any man besides her husband. After his parents' divorce, he stayed with his mother in Jerome, Idaho.
His mother remarried and the family moved to rural Montana, where his step-father worked in an isolated location as a railroad telegrapher. His mother had a third child, a son, with her new husband, and when her father-in-law in Kansas passed away from old age, she decided to stay put in Montana rather than have the entire family travel to the funeral in Kansas. His step-father brought the toddler with him to the funeral in Kansas, but on the trip back to Montana the baby died, presumably from pneumonia. Within a year, the family moved to Jerome, Idaho, to be closer to his mother's brothers. His maternal grandmother left her husband and moved in the with family.
Within two years after moving to Jerome, Idaho, his step-father succumbed to tuberculosis, his grandmother died from stomach cancer, and his mother re-married, her third marriage, which did not last a year.
In 1922, his father's mental health became a matter for the courts in Utah. After 15 months in jail, his father was found "not guilty by reason of insanity" for the murder of his second wife Elsie Rosenthal Yorgason. After a brief stay in the Provo Sanitarium, his father was released to his younger brother Ernest Yorgason in Idaho, in 1924.
During the summer of 1925, between his sophomore and junior years at high school, Willard Yorgason worked as a messboy on the SS West Cayote, traveling from Portland, Oregon to Yokohama, Japan to San Francisco, California. He was 16 at the time, and lied about his age. It seems an extreme way to spend one's summer vacation, but it did get him well away from the drama in Idaho.
Changing his first name to Wallace, he settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1930s, along with his older brother Oren. Their somewhat-rehabilitated father, who had many paternal first cousins living in the area, had settled in northern California in the late 1920s, and while there his father was married and divorced twice more, before marrying his fifth wife Vera, an attractive young Finnish-American woman of limited capacity, to whom he was married for over 20 years.
Wallace was briefly married, but he was a drinker, and after the failure of his first marriage to Cleve "Claire" Mullaly, in San Francisco, he moved to Austin, Texas where he worked as an advertising salesman for the new AM radio station, KNOW.
Missouri marriage records show that his second wife stated that her name was Evelyn Josephine Noble, [her maiden name was Evelyn Josephine Little] and she claimed to have been born in Texas. They were married within a week after the finalization of his divorce from his first wife. At that point in time, the couple had been living together as man and wife in Austin, and raising their child, so they traveled out of state to Missouri in order to be married.
Willard/Wallace was known to be the father of two sons, one with each of his wives. The first son was named Jon Michael Yorgason at birth, with a name change to Jon Michael Buchholdt after his first wife's remarriage to LeRoy Buchholdt in Salt Lake City, Utah. His second son, with his wife Evelyn, was named John Yorgason. In 1996, the records of Yorgason family genealogist (and Willard/Wallace's first cousin) Ruby Yorgason Hurren showed that this second son was later known as John Lee Hughes.
The exact circumstances of Willard/Wallace Yorgason's death are unknown. It was said that he died unexpectedly and alone in a hotel room "back East" during a business trip. It was also said that he had been murdered because "he knew too much." A death certificate obtained in February 2023 by the son of his first cousin Ruby Yorgason Hurren shows that Wallace N. Yorgason died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Johnston Emergency Hospital. The cause of death was heart disease and heart failure, specifically "coronary arterio sclerosis and fibrous myocarditis."
There was no autopsy. His cremation at Forest Home crematorium in Milwaukee was on May 7, 1946, the day after the local Medical Examiner signed off on his death certificate.
His ashes were eventually sent to his brother Oren Yorgason in Montclair, Oakland, California. Oren Yorgason and his Engstrom half-brothers agreed that Willard/Wallace's ashes should be eventually and informally buried with their mother, Mary Luella Larsen Yorgason Engstrom Cromer Thomas, during her funeral in Yuba City, California in 1958. In 2009, Ruby Engstrom, widow of Lloyd Engstrom, verified that Willard Yorgason's ashes had been added to the gravesite of Mary Luella [also spelled Louella] Thomas.
His parents were Wilford "Bill" Moroni Yorgason and Mary Luella "Lulu" Larsen, and he was their second son. He was born at St. Joe (aka Saint Joe), an unincorporated district in Big Horn county, Wyoming, a few miles from Burlington and across the Greybull River. He was born near the end of his parents' brief marriage. In his WWII draft registration form, his place of birth was listed as Basin, Wyoming.
His mother divorced his father due to his father's insane rage which appeared if, at any kind of social gathering, she spoke to any man besides her husband. After his parents' divorce, he stayed with his mother in Jerome, Idaho.
His mother remarried and the family moved to rural Montana, where his step-father worked in an isolated location as a railroad telegrapher. His mother had a third child, a son, with her new husband, and when her father-in-law in Kansas passed away from old age, she decided to stay put in Montana rather than have the entire family travel to the funeral in Kansas. His step-father brought the toddler with him to the funeral in Kansas, but on the trip back to Montana the baby died, presumably from pneumonia. Within a year, the family moved to Jerome, Idaho, to be closer to his mother's brothers. His maternal grandmother left her husband and moved in the with family.
Within two years after moving to Jerome, Idaho, his step-father succumbed to tuberculosis, his grandmother died from stomach cancer, and his mother re-married, her third marriage, which did not last a year.
In 1922, his father's mental health became a matter for the courts in Utah. After 15 months in jail, his father was found "not guilty by reason of insanity" for the murder of his second wife Elsie Rosenthal Yorgason. After a brief stay in the Provo Sanitarium, his father was released to his younger brother Ernest Yorgason in Idaho, in 1924.
During the summer of 1925, between his sophomore and junior years at high school, Willard Yorgason worked as a messboy on the SS West Cayote, traveling from Portland, Oregon to Yokohama, Japan to San Francisco, California. He was 16 at the time, and lied about his age. It seems an extreme way to spend one's summer vacation, but it did get him well away from the drama in Idaho.
Changing his first name to Wallace, he settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1930s, along with his older brother Oren. Their somewhat-rehabilitated father, who had many paternal first cousins living in the area, had settled in northern California in the late 1920s, and while there his father was married and divorced twice more, before marrying his fifth wife Vera, an attractive young Finnish-American woman of limited capacity, to whom he was married for over 20 years.
Wallace was briefly married, but he was a drinker, and after the failure of his first marriage to Cleve "Claire" Mullaly, in San Francisco, he moved to Austin, Texas where he worked as an advertising salesman for the new AM radio station, KNOW.
Missouri marriage records show that his second wife stated that her name was Evelyn Josephine Noble, [her maiden name was Evelyn Josephine Little] and she claimed to have been born in Texas. They were married within a week after the finalization of his divorce from his first wife. At that point in time, the couple had been living together as man and wife in Austin, and raising their child, so they traveled out of state to Missouri in order to be married.
Willard/Wallace was known to be the father of two sons, one with each of his wives. The first son was named Jon Michael Yorgason at birth, with a name change to Jon Michael Buchholdt after his first wife's remarriage to LeRoy Buchholdt in Salt Lake City, Utah. His second son, with his wife Evelyn, was named John Yorgason. In 1996, the records of Yorgason family genealogist (and Willard/Wallace's first cousin) Ruby Yorgason Hurren showed that this second son was later known as John Lee Hughes.
The exact circumstances of Willard/Wallace Yorgason's death are unknown. It was said that he died unexpectedly and alone in a hotel room "back East" during a business trip. It was also said that he had been murdered because "he knew too much." A death certificate obtained in February 2023 by the son of his first cousin Ruby Yorgason Hurren shows that Wallace N. Yorgason died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Johnston Emergency Hospital. The cause of death was heart disease and heart failure, specifically "coronary arterio sclerosis and fibrous myocarditis."
There was no autopsy. His cremation at Forest Home crematorium in Milwaukee was on May 7, 1946, the day after the local Medical Examiner signed off on his death certificate.
His ashes were eventually sent to his brother Oren Yorgason in Montclair, Oakland, California. Oren Yorgason and his Engstrom half-brothers agreed that Willard/Wallace's ashes should be eventually and informally buried with their mother, Mary Luella Larsen Yorgason Engstrom Cromer Thomas, during her funeral in Yuba City, California in 1958. In 2009, Ruby Engstrom, widow of Lloyd Engstrom, verified that Willard Yorgason's ashes had been added to the gravesite of Mary Luella [also spelled Louella] Thomas.
His mother divorced his father due to his father's insane rage which appeared if, at any kind of social gathering, she spoke to any man besides her husband. After his parents' divorce, he stayed with his mother in Jerome, Idaho.
His mother remarried and the family moved to rural Montana, where his step-father worked in an isolated location as a railroad telegrapher. His mother had a third child, a son, with her new husband, and when her father-in-law in Kansas passed away from old age, she decided to stay put in Montana rather than have the entire family travel to the funeral in Kansas. His step-father brought the toddler with him to the funeral in Kansas, but on the trip back to Montana the baby died, presumably from pneumonia. Within a year, the family moved to Jerome, Idaho, to be closer to his mother's brothers. His maternal grandmother left her husband and moved in the with family.
Within two years after moving to Jerome, Idaho, his step-father succumbed to tuberculosis, his grandmother died from stomach cancer, and his mother re-married, her third marriage, which did not last a year.
In 1922, his father's mental health became a matter for the courts in Utah. After 15 months in jail, his father was found "not guilty by reason of insanity" for the murder of his second wife Elsie Rosenthal Yorgason. After a brief stay in the Provo Sanitarium, his father was released to his younger brother Ernest Yorgason in Idaho, in 1924.
During the summer of 1925, between his sophomore and junior years at high school, Willard Yorgason worked as a messboy on the SS West Cayote, traveling from Portland, Oregon to Yokohama, Japan to San Francisco, California. He was 16 at the time, and lied about his age. It seems an extreme way to spend one's summer vacation, but it did get him well away from the drama in Idaho.
Changing his first name to Wallace, he settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1930s, along with his older brother Oren. Their somewhat-rehabilitated father, who had many paternal first cousins living in the area, had settled in northern California in the late 1920s, and while there his father was married and divorced twice more, before marrying his fifth wife Vera, an attractive young Finnish-American woman of limited capacity, to whom he was married for over 20 years.
Wallace was briefly married, but he was a drinker, and after the failure of his first marriage to Cleve "Claire" Mullaly, in San Francisco, he moved to Austin, Texas where he worked as an advertising salesman for the new AM radio station, KNOW.
Missouri marriage records show that his second wife stated that her name was Evelyn Josephine Noble, [her maiden name was Evelyn Josephine Little] and she claimed to have been born in Texas. They were married within a week after the finalization of his divorce from his first wife. At that point in time, the couple had been living together as man and wife in Austin, and raising their child, so they traveled out of state to Missouri in order to be married.
Willard/Wallace was known to be the father of two sons, one with each of his wives. The first son was named Jon Michael Yorgason at birth, with a name change to Jon Michael Buchholdt after his first wife's remarriage to LeRoy Buchholdt in Salt Lake City, Utah. His second son, with his wife Evelyn, was named John Yorgason. In 1996, the records of Yorgason family genealogist (and Willard/Wallace's first cousin) Ruby Yorgason Hurren showed that this second son was later known as John Lee Hughes.
The exact circumstances of Willard/Wallace Yorgason's death are unknown. It was said that he died unexpectedly and alone in a hotel room "back East" during a business trip. It was also said that he had been murdered because "he knew too much." A death certificate obtained in February 2023 by the son of his first cousin Ruby Yorgason Hurren shows that Wallace N. Yorgason died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Johnston Emergency Hospital. The cause of death was heart disease and heart failure, specifically "coronary arterio sclerosis and fibrous myocarditis."
There was no autopsy. His cremation at Forest Home crematorium in Milwaukee was on May 7, 1946, the day after the local Medical Examiner signed off on his death certificate.
His ashes were eventually sent to his brother Oren Yorgason in Montclair, Oakland, California. Oren Yorgason and his Engstrom half-brothers agreed that Willard/Wallace's ashes should be eventually and informally buried with their mother, Mary Luella Larsen Yorgason Engstrom Cromer Thomas, during her funeral in Yuba City, California in 1958. In 2009, Ruby Engstrom, widow of Lloyd Engstrom, verified that Willard Yorgason's ashes had been added to the gravesite of Mary Luella [also spelled Louella] Thomas.
Gravesite Details
Because it was a family decision between Willard Yorgason's brothers, there is likely no cemetery record of his ashes having been spread there.
