Jane Van Houten, mother of Leslie Van Houten (Manson follower)

[d***@comcast.net]

Jane Louise Edwards Van Houten

Van Houten, Jane Louise Edwards Passed peacefully in her sleep on March
17, 2005. She was 85 years old. She is survived by her brother, Jim and
her sister, Margaret; her children, Paul, Leslie, Elizabeth and David
and seven grandchildren. Jane was born January 2, 1920 in Iowa and was
fond of saying "the year women got the vote." Jane taught Special
Education and was a well-respected resource teacher for the Los Angeles
School District for 20 years. Over her life she was an advocate for
peace and active in various social justice causes. She was a world
traveler and an adventurous car camper throughout North America. She is
remembered for her intelligence, kindness, strength, independence and
humor. Donation in her memory may be made to the Nature Conservancy.
Published in the Los Angeles Times on 10/29/2005.
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[Jim Beaver]

<***@comcast.net> wrote in message news:***@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Jane Louise Edwards Van Houten

Van Houten, Jane Louise Edwards Passed peacefully in her sleep on March
17, 2005. She was 85 years old. She is survived by her brother, Jim and
her sister, Margaret; her children, Paul, Leslie, Elizabeth and David
and seven grandchildren. Jane was born January 2, 1920 in Iowa and was
fond of saying "the year women got the vote." Jane taught Special
Education and was a well-respected resource teacher for the Los Angeles
School District for 20 years. Over her life she was an advocate for
peace and active in various social justice causes. She was a world
traveler and an adventurous car camper throughout North America. She is
remembered for her intelligence, kindness, strength, independence and
humor. Donation in her memory may be made to the Nature Conservancy.
Published in the Los Angeles Times on 10/29/2005.
Guest Book · Flowers · Gift Shop · Charities
---------------
This may solve a mystery that has puzzled me for twenty years. During the
years that I shared a house with the old character actor Hank Worden, I had
numerous occasions to call someone on his behalf or otherwise to look
something up in his address book. On one such occasion, I noticed with a
great deal of surprise that one of the addresses in his book was for
convicted Manson-Family murderer Leslie Van Houten. (It was her prison
address.) I never asked Hank about this -- it seemed none of my business.
But I always wondered. The obit above has clues that suggest that Hank's
connection was not so much with Leslie as with her mother, as Hank's late
wife Louise had been a Special Education teacher in the Los Angeles School
District as well. I would not be surprised if they were colleagues and
friends. If the Worden and Van Houten families were friends, it goes a long
way toward suggesting a reason that Hank would have the address of a
mass-murderer in his book.

Jim Beaver

[James Neibaur]

Jim Beaver 10/30/05 1:04 AM

Post by Jim Beaver
During the
years that I shared a house with the old character actor Hank Worden

(snip)

This is the point in your passage where I did a spit-take. You shared a
house with one of my favorite character actors! He had to have been in
nearly 200 movies (I know I saw him in something as recent as Runaway Train,
and he was for sure in movies as far back as The Plainsman in '36). Always
welcome, always delightful, and had a long, long life as well.

He must have had some incredible stories about old Hollywood and new.

JN

[Jim Beaver]

Post by James Neibaur
Jim Beaver 10/30/05 1:04 AM

Post by Jim Beaver
During the
years that I shared a house with the old character actor Hank Worden

(snip)
This is the point in your passage where I did a spit-take. You shared a
house with one of my favorite character actors! He had to have been in
nearly 200 movies (I know I saw him in something as recent as Runaway Train,
and he was for sure in movies as far back as The Plainsman in '36).
Always
welcome, always delightful, and had a long, long life as well.
He must have had some incredible stories about old Hollywood and new.

I thought my years with Hank Worden were pretty common knowledge on a.o.,
but one forgets after a while what one has shared and what one hasn't. Hank
was like a grandfather to me. I moved to L.A. in the early Eighties, and
was renting a room in a fraternity house at USC. It was hell on earth for
someone trying to do research, and Hank suggested I move in with him. His
wife had died several years earlier and he was getting kind of rickety,
living alone in a house full of stairs, so I think there may have been
certain advantages for him, as well. But I clearly came out ahead. I lived
there for about four years. Hank was a gregarious fellow, but unfortunately
rather bereft of "incredible stories." He had stories, but they tended to
be seriously short on detail and "incredibility." His descriptions of his
co-workers and directors were almost always of the following nature: "Oh,
John Ford was a good director. He always seemed to know what he wanted." I
heard him say almost exactly the same sentence about Ford, Hawks, Wim
Wenders, Joseph Kane, George Marshall, John Wayne, Cecil B. DeMille, Andre
de Toth, and Henry Hathaway. It was pulling teeth to get anything more
descriptive out of him. Late in his life, he asked me if I wanted to work
with him on his autobiography, and we made some preliminary plans. But I
had a distinct concern that he would never be able to fill a book with
answers to questions about his career. The funny thing was, he would often
drop a wonderful tidbit about some film or actor or director into
conversation, but if you ASKED about someone, he seemed almost completely
unable to come up with more than, "Oh, he was a nice fellow." (Example:
one day he mentioned casually that the 8x10 headshot photo he used for
publicity and auditions at one point in his career was taken by Lee Van
Cleef. But if I asked about Van Cleef, the train stopped at "Oh, he was a
nice fellow.")

I suppose I could fill a good-sized article with stuff Hank told me over the
years, but despite hundreds of conversations over many years before, during,
and after my residence with him, I don't think I could come anywhere near
filling a book. It's too bad, because he clearly had a very interesting
life, but his interest in details seemed restricted to what he had for
breakfast or the cubic centimeters of some motorcycle engine (he was a
motorcycle enthusiast who never owned one!). He was one of a kind. Movie
making, I think, was just such an ordinary job to him, not much different
from his days at Lockheed or on the farm, that it never occurred to him that
recounting the details of the work might be of interest to anyone. In later
years, after he was gone, I learned some techniques for drawing extended
answers out of interview subjects. I wish I'd known those techniques during
my time with Hank. I did manage to write a play, a one-man show about a
fictional B-Western cowboy entitled "Sidekick," which drew a great deal on
things Hank told me, but that about drained the well.

Jim Beaver

[James Neibaur]

Jim Beaver 10/30/05 10:47 AM

Post by Jim Beaver
I did manage to write a play, a one-man show about a
fictional B-Western cowboy entitled "Sidekick," which drew a great deal on
things Hank told me, but that about drained the well.

Is there any way I can read this?

JN

[Jim Beaver]

Post by James Neibaur
Jim Beaver 10/30/05 10:47 AM

Post by Jim Beaver
I did manage to write a play, a one-man show about a
fictional B-Western cowboy entitled "Sidekick," which drew a great deal on
things Hank told me, but that about drained the well.

Is there any way I can read this?
JN

I've just emailed it to you.

Jim Beaver

[La N]

Post by d***@comcast.net
Jane Louise Edwards Van Houten
Van Houten, Jane Louise Edwards Passed peacefully in her sleep on March
17, 2005. She was 85 years old. She is survived by her brother, Jim and
her sister, Margaret; her children, Paul, Leslie, Elizabeth and David
and seven grandchildren. Jane was born January 2, 1920 in Iowa and was
fond of saying "the year women got the vote." Jane taught Special
Education and was a well-respected resource teacher for the Los Angeles
School District for 20 years. Over her life she was an advocate for
peace and active in various social justice causes. She was a world
traveler and an adventurous car camper throughout North America. She is
remembered for her intelligence, kindness, strength, independence and
humor. Donation in her memory may be made to the Nature Conservancy.
Published in the Los Angeles Times on 10/29/2005.
Guest Book · Flowers · Gift Shop · Charities
---------------
This may solve a mystery that has puzzled me for twenty years. During the
years that I shared a house with the old character actor Hank Worden, I
had numerous occasions to call someone on his behalf or otherwise to look
something up in his address book. On one such occasion, I noticed with a
great deal of surprise that one of the addresses in his book was for
convicted Manson-Family murderer Leslie Van Houten. (It was her prison
address.) I never asked Hank about this -- it seemed none of my business.
But I always wondered. The obit above has clues that suggest that Hank's
connection was not so much with Leslie as with her mother, as Hank's late
wife Louise had been a Special Education teacher in the Los Angeles School
District as well. I would not be surprised if they were colleagues and
friends. If the Worden and Van Houten families were friends, it goes a
long way toward suggesting a reason that Hank would have the address of a
mass-murderer in his book.
Jim Beaver

Have you ever thought of writing a book, Jim? ..%)

- nilita

[Jon Nadelberg]

Post by d***@comcast.net
Jane Louise Edwards Van Houten
Van Houten, Jane Louise Edwards Passed peacefully in her sleep on March
17, 2005. She was 85 years old. She is survived by her brother, Jim and
her sister, Margaret; her children, Paul, Leslie, Elizabeth and David
and seven grandchildren. Jane was born January 2, 1920 in Iowa and was
fond of saying "the year women got the vote." Jane taught Special
Education and was a well-respected resource teacher for the Los Angeles
School District for 20 years. Over her life she was an advocate for
peace and active in various social justice causes. She was a world
traveler and an adventurous car camper throughout North America. She is
remembered for her intelligence, kindness, strength, independence and
humor. Donation in her memory may be made to the Nature Conservancy.
Published in the Los Angeles Times on 10/29/2005.
Guest Book · Flowers · Gift Shop · Charities
---------------
This may solve a mystery that has puzzled me for twenty years. During the
years that I shared a house with the old character actor Hank Worden, I had
numerous occasions to call someone on his behalf or otherwise to look
something up in his address book. On one such occasion, I noticed with a
great deal of surprise that one of the addresses in his book was for
convicted Manson-Family murderer Leslie Van Houten. (It was her prison
address.) I never asked Hank about this -- it seemed none of my business.
But I always wondered. The obit above has clues that suggest that Hank's
connection was not so much with Leslie as with her mother, as Hank's late
wife Louise had been a Special Education teacher in the Los Angeles School
District as well. I would not be surprised if they were colleagues and
friends. If the Worden and Van Houten families were friends, it goes a long
way toward suggesting a reason that Hank would have the address of a
mass-murderer in his book.
Jim Beaver

Either that, or he had hobbies you didn't know about.

[t***@gmail.com]

Post by d***@comcast.net
Jane Louise Edwards Van Houten
Van Houten, Jane Louise Edwards Passed peacefully in her sleep on March
17, 2005. She was 85 years old. She is survived by her brother, Jim and
her sister, Margaret; her children, Paul, Leslie, Elizabeth and David
and seven grandchildren. Jane was born January 2, 1920 in Iowa and was
fond of saying "the year women got the vote." Jane taught Special
Education and was a well-respected resource teacher for the Los Angeles
School District for 20 years. Over her life she was an advocate for
peace and active in various social justice causes. She was a world
traveler and an adventurous car camper throughout North America. She is
remembered for her intelligence, kindness, strength, independence and
humor. Donation in her memory may be made to the Nature Conservancy.
Published in the Los Angeles Times on 10/29/2005.
Guest Book · Flowers · Gift Shop · Charities

Hi Jim!

Hope you are safe!
Do you think you would send me a copy of that script? Sounds compelling and quirky.

Greets
Tommy

[Declan]

Post by t***@gmail.com

Post by d***@comcast.net
Jane Louise Edwards Van Houten
Van Houten, Jane Louise Edwards Passed peacefully in her sleep on March
17, 2005. She was 85 years old. She is survived by her brother, Jim and
her sister, Margaret; her children, Paul, Leslie, Elizabeth and David
and seven grandchildren. Jane was born January 2, 1920 in Iowa and was
fond of saying "the year women got the vote." Jane taught Special
Education and was a well-respected resource teacher for the Los Angeles
School District for 20 years. Over her life she was an advocate for
peace and active in various social justice causes. She was a world
traveler and an adventurous car camper throughout North America. She is
remembered for her intelligence, kindness, strength, independence and
humor. Donation in her memory may be made to the Nature Conservancy.
Published in the Los Angeles Times on 10/29/2005.
Guest Book · Flowers · Gift Shop · Charities

Hi Jim!
Hope you are safe!
Do you think you would send me a copy of that script? Sounds compelling and quirky.
Greets
Tommy

2022 Dec 19