Wilda Irene Hoyt (McCallister) 1918 - 2009

July 1997

Wilda Irene McCallister was the first daughter of Frank and Bernice McCallister.  She was born March 3rd, 1918. She has a sister, Joyce, 12 years younger.  She was born at home in Tod township on Crawford county and Wyandot County line road in Ohio.  She was raised on a general farm.
Wilda had lessons on piano, violin, cello, and organ.  She played violin in high school orchestra and graduated from Eden High School  salutatorian.  She went to Business University (now Tiffin University) she played cello in college.  While at college she roomed with Augusta Jenner (b. dec 26, '17 - d. may 19, '10) and worked as a cook in the rooming house.
After the 11 month course she left home to live on 10th ave with Augusta in Columbus.  She worked for Ohio Church Council as a secretary in '38.  Later she went to Nationwide Insurance as a typist.  She moved home after she lost her job.  Soon after she got a Civil Service job at Ohio State as a secretary for Dr. Raymond Bennet in the College of education for 2 and a half years.   She roomed with Rudolf King and is wife on 16th Ave.  It was here on December 16, 1939 she met Wallace Hoyt Potts (who later changed his name to Wallace Potts Hoyt). One year later on December 16th they were married in the Olentangy Village Apartments in the apartment of mutual friend Eleanor Ludeman.  Trinity Episcopal Minister Anson Stokes performed the ceremony.  Their parents did not attend the wedding.  Her parents refused because they thought lowly of Wallace.  Wallace's sister and mother said they had nothing to wear.  They lived on 8th Ave. in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1940 while pregnant they moved into an apartment on Frames. Ave.  When Wallace got a job in Orwell, Wilda left her job at the university.  They lived in the old town hall by the school during the school years.  Summers they had to make alternate arrangements.   Feb 24, 1941 their first child, Sean, was born in the home here.
In 1942 they moved to Lakeside, Ohio while Wallace worked at Danbury High.  She had her second son, Willard, while here April 23, 1943.  Wallace left Danbury and they moved into grandfather's house (  I don't know which - possibly George Potts).
She moved to Toledo when Wallace was hospitalized and worked for Willys Jeep and lived in an appartment in Rossford.
In an attempt to help with the war effort they moved to Spokane, Washington.  Wallace's mom, Lydia,  came with them.  To find work they moved to Seattle.  They lived in  a boarding house until they could buy a house in the Lake City  development.  Wilda worked at Markey Machinery.  She had her third child Norreen Bernice,
They sold the house at Lake City and bought a house just outside Bellvue.  When Wallace went o the hospital for a "nervous breakdown," one of many times, they sold the home to pay for the bills.  They drove back to Ohio and stayed with her sister in law Elsa's family while Elsa was in the hospital.
When Wallace got a job in Loudoville, they found an apartment on U.S. 3 ner Shreve.  Later they moved to a duplex in Loudonville.  When the duplex owner's sold the home, Wilda's parents helped them buy a partially finished house.  She held a preschool in the basement from 2 years and in 1951 started a kindergarten.  In the summers she worked for recreations and crafts for girls.  She also took in ironings and cleaned house for people.  She was on Welfare and aid often during the years her husband was hospitalized.
She began working as a secretary in Loudonville High School part time and in 1953 went to full time. They stayed thereuntil Sean graduated from Loudonville in 1959.   When Wallace got a teaching job at Maume High School in 1959, Wilda took a secretary job there.  They lived in a garage apartment until they bought a house on Anderson in Maumee, Ohio.  In 1961 she has a hysterectomy because of a tumor.
In 1963 they sold the house on Anderson to build in a new development on Anderson.  They moved in spring.
In summer 1965 she went to New York when Wallace had a fellowsip in Oneanto, NY.
In 1976 Wilda and Wallace moved to Ashland, Ohio to a split home with her parents.  She retired in September 76.  Her parents moved to KY in 1977 and Wilda and Walace moved to a Duplex in Ashland.  Wallace died there.
In August 1980 almost a year after her husband died, Wilda moved to Middletown, Ohio near Noreen and her family.  From October '80 through June 83 she work as a house mother for the Delta Zeta sorority at OSU.  After 5 years there, she left to open the new Phi Mu sororuty at Indiana University.    After two years she left to be closer to Noreen's family again.  She worked as a house mother for TPA soroity at UC.  She retired for good june, 1992.
Wilda bought a house at 1928 Erie St.  in Middletown, Ohio.  She lived there in retirement until her death from cancer Saturday January 24, 2009.  She had visited every capital in the US.  She spent her retirement traveling with Noreen, serving at her church, Episcopal Church of Southern Ohio, and visiting with family.

Wallace Potts Hoyt 1916 - 1979

1948

Wallace > Sean > Brue > Lillian

Born Wallace Hoyt Potts  1916 to George Herbert Potts and Lydia Stone Hoyt.  Wallace's parents separated in 1928.  He lived with his father but for an unknown reason at some point he couldn't live with his father and moved in with United Brethren minister Rev Jaynes and wife in Norwalk, OH.  His mother could not support him.  He worked and saved and earned a Club scholarship to go to Ohio State University in pre-law in 1934.  He was a page in the Ohio Senate while going to school.  He had a nervous breakdown in 1937 and moved in with his sister Elsa and her husband Howard Florian.  He would suffer from mental disorder the remainder of his life.  He returned to school the following year in Education.   He met Wilda McCallister at school Dec. 1938.  Their first date was the play Shadows and Substance by Sean O'Casey.  Wallace changed his name to Potts Hoyt after he met Wilda but before they were married.   The name change was "partly because he thought it would be more of an advantage as a teacher" according to his Wilda.  It is also speculated that it was because of differences with his father.  They married Dec 16th, 1939 at the Olentangy Village apartments.  Their families did not attend the wedding.  He finished school in 1940.  He majored in Social Studies (history) with a minor in English (speech).  Wallace and Wilda lived in a rooming house on 8th Ave.  near OSU while he worked in the dorms.  While they were expecting their first child, Sean (b. Feb 1941), they moved to an apartment on Frambes Ave.  that belonged to a college professor, Frances Jones, who had been a great help to Wallace in the college speech dept.
He got a job teaching English in Orwell, OH.  They lived in the old town hall next to the school with no running water except a pump in the kitchen.  He worked at Heckler Dairy in the summers.  Since the owners of the town hall apartment only rented it in the fall through spring and lived there in the summers Wallace and Wilda stayed summers elsewhere.   Once with his brother Herbet, once over a restaurant, once in a summer cabin at Heckler's beach.  He made $1200 a year teaching.  He was laid off in 1942.

1974

They moved to a rental in Lakeside Ohio when he got a job teaching at Danbury High School.  Wilda writes "Wallace and a friend, Willard Bird, tried to enlist in Merchant Protection Service."  I believe she meant the Coast Guard.  For what ever reason he was not accepted.  With the US at War he and Willard enlisted in the Navy.  His second son, Willard Wallace Hoyt, was born April 23rd, 1943.
Wallace left his Job at Lakeside in hopes of leaving for the service.  With no job they went to live in grandfther's house who according to Wilda "died in 1943 and property wasn't settled" (Sean's grandpa? Wilda's grandpa Ferguson?).  He took a job at Jeffrey Motors.  While there he had another breakdown.  He committed himself to Toledo State Hospital.  As a result he was not allowed to accept his military appointment.  He was in the hospital from July to Dec 1943.  While in the Hospital his Mother stayed with Wilda and the kids. When he got out he took a job Chevrolet Transmission Plant in Toledo.  He left this job in June to move to Spokane, Washington  (1944) because (according to Wilda) he wanted to help the war effort.  When he couldn't get a job there, he moved to Seattle and worked for Boeing aircraft in material control as an expeditor.  After living in a boarding house for a while they bought a house Lake City Development.  His Daughter Noreen was born in 1945.  When the war was over and many Boeing employees were laid off.  Wallace's mother died in Nov. 1945 and was buried in Acacia Cemetery.  Wallace worked there a couple weeks and they sold the house in Lake City and bought a smaller house with an acre of land  in Belllvue, WA.
Wallace got a job as n insurance adjuster in Sep 1945.  (The order of dates don't make sense to me but this is the way Wilda wrote it)   After being on the road for "a while" he was promoted to head of the department.  In 1947 Wallace had another "nervous breakdown"  he was "let go" in June, 1947.  He went to a private Hospital in the care of Dr, Wirth.  They had to sell the home to pay the bills.  They drove back to Ohio in July, 1947.  They stayed with his sister Elsa's family while she was in the hospital having surgery for cancer.  After this he attained a teaching position in Loudonville, Ohio.  They rented an apartment in Loudonville on US 3 near Shreve.  They soon moved to a duplex owened by the Henleys.
Wallce had his fourth "nervous breakdown'.  The hospitalizations are for schizophrenic episodes.  He was removed from the home this time while his eldest son watched on.  He was in Columbus State Hospital form Jan to Feb 1948.  After this he worked at Wander in Wooster.  After a fifth episode he was hospitalization from June, 13th through July 22nd (again at CSH) he got a job at "Flxible" in Sep 1948.  No sooner than he started he was hospitalized again October 24th to Dec 7th and was "released" from Flxible.  Between this and his next hospitalization he worked at Sohio.  From Apr - May 50 he was again hospitalized.  The Henleys sold the house to Don Kick so the Family had to move.
Wilda's parents put a down payment on a partially finished house and loaned money to Wallace to finish it.   I think this was the home in Loudonville, OH.  Wallace was back in the hospital yet again from October 7th through December 21st, 1950.
Upon getting out of the hospital he took a job with Cooper Bessemer in Mt. Vernon.  Again he was back in the hospital from April 2nd to May 1, 1951.  Over the years his treatment included insulin and shock therapy.  The family was often on welfare and Wilda worked many jobs to cover family expenses during the years Wallace was hospitalized.
Next, Wallace worked at Borg-Warner in Wooster.  Again he was sick.  This time Dr. Benjamin Kovitz recommended a new drug, Reserpine.  It worked and this is the last mention of hospitalization for Wallace for mental illness.
In addition to the nervous breakdown in '37, Walace was hospitalized in '43 (5 months), '47 (one month),  '48 (3 times for a total of 5 months),  '50 (twice for a total of 3 months), '51 (one month) and his final breakdown (undated btween 51 and 53) marked his final time.
After this he took a job with Kallmerten & Baier cement in Mansfield as a bookkeeper.  In 1957 he took a job with Bellville High School as a teacher and coach of plays.   During Summers he went to OSU to get his Master's in Guidance.
In 1959 he started teaching at Maumee High School.  They bought a house in Maumee on Anderson Ave.  He finished his Master's in 1961.
He sold the house on Anderson to buy land and build in a new development also on Anderson in 1963.   This is the earliest home where I remember visiting my grandpa.

In 1976 Wallace and Wilda moved to Ashland, Ohio to a lot that had two homes connected by a central garage with my great grandparents.  I remember thinking how add the split homes were and that my grandparents and my great grandparents were next door.  1964 or 65 he started working as a guidance counselor for Penta County Vocational School. Wallace retired in 76 with a hearing disability.  Wilda's parents moved to Lexington, KY in 1977 and Wallace and Wilda They moved to a duplex in Ashland.
November 15, 1979 Wallace died in his sleep of "emphysema and heart disease."
I know form being in his vicinity that he snored louder than anyone else I have ever met (his son Sean being an impressive snorer also).  He also smoked a lot and was very overweight.

From as early as I can remember until his death I visited with him, went on annual camping trips and holidays, went to the Toledo Zoo and Cleveland Indians games with him.  He always had a hearing aid in one ear and a transistor radio in the other with baseball on.  I have many letters to the editor he wrote about how the Tribe could improve.


Most of the information in this post is from a document typed by Wilda Hoyt.