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| Introduction |
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| The Early Years |
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| Page 5 |
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| Page 6 |
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| Page 7 |
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| Page 8 |
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| Entering The... |
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| The Dodger Saga |
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| A New Era Begins |
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| Ebbets Field Revisited |
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| The Memorable... |
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| Searching for New... |
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| L.A. Sends a Message |
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| This is Next Year! |
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| Putting Their Domes... |
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| The Political Game |
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| 1957 |
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| Los Angeles Bound |
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| Where to Play in L.A. |
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| Curveball Right... |
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| The Red Head is a... |
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| 1959: A Year of... |
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| Home Sweet Home |
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| Construction of... |
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| L.A.'s Sparkling New... |
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| 1963: A Taxing Year... |
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| The Business of.. |
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| Growing the Game... |
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| Moving to Chairman... |
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| The Last Inning |
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He was Salutatorian of his senior class at Penn and won the “Spoon Man” award as the outstanding overall student in 1926. It was while at Penn that O’Malley began corresponding regularly with Katharina “Kay” Elizabeth Hanson, a beautiful, shy young woman whom he had decidedly had his eye on from childhood. He frequently wrote whimsical notes to her about the goings on at college, as she was nearly four years his junior. A regular writer herself, Kay responded to O’Malley’s charming anecdotes with her own stories from home and later from the College of New Rochelle, where she was graduated.
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The “Spoon Man” Award honored the outstanding overall student at the University of Pennsylvania in 1926. |
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Kay was the daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Hanson of New York. Peter Hanson and Edwin O’Malley, Walter’s father, were neighbors and friends.
Hanson was a judge in Brooklyn Domestic Relations Court, who protected children’s rights. Born in Sweden, his family moved to Brooklyn when he was six. He graduated from New York Law School in 1900. For 16 years, Hanson was President of Swedish Hospital in Brooklyn. His wife, Elizabeth, was a housewife, the daughter of Philip and Katherina Geyer, both of German descent. Hanson had two daughters — Katharina (Kay), the eldest and Helen, five years her junior.
While the two knew each other growing up, Walter O’Malley and Kay Hanson, were like any other neighbor kids, doing all the fun activities to pass the time. They did not develop their love story until much later.
“Kay’s folks lived in the house next to ours in Amityville, Long Island,” said O’Malley. “We were on the Great South Bay and we liked fishing and boating. I saw her grow up — she’s younger than I, of course. Gradually, it led into romance.”17
O’Malley continued his education, now with an interest in studying law, even though his undergraduate work specialized in engineering. Appreciating his dedicated studies and knowing his love of boating, O’Malley’s proud parents presented him a cabin cruiser as a graduation gift. The boat was later donated to the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II.
After graduating from Pennsylvania, O’Malley attended Columbia Law School in 1926, where he had enrolled prior to his father, Edwin, losing the family’s savings in the stock market crash and Depression. Walter juggled three jobs simultaneously and transferred to New York’s Fordham University School of Law, where he could somehow sneak in his law education at night. Fordham’s School of Law was housed on the 28th floor of the Woolworth Building, which was then the world’s tallest building. One of O’Malley’s night school classmates was New York Congressman Eugene J. Keogh, for whom the famed “Keogh Plan” is named. While completing his degree at Fordham in 1930, O’Malley gained valuable experience working in the offices of Judge Hanson.
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Neighbors Kay Hanson and Walter O’Malley on an early boat trip with friends and family.
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The “Spoon Man” Award which reads “Honor Award Presented To Walter Francis O’Malley, Spoon Man, By The Class Of 1926.” |
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The O’Malley’s family summer home (left) next door to the Hanson home in Amityville, NY. |
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