Disneyland honors Lillian Disney with Main Street U.S.A. window
Disneyland has honored Lillian Disney with a personalized decorative window on Main Street U.S.A. on what would have been her 100th wedding anniversary with Walt Disney — the founder of the Anaheim theme park.
The private ceremony was held on Sunday, July 13 before Disneyland opened to the public with some Disney family members in attendance as Lillian Disney’s window was unveiled on the Disney Showcase gift shop building.
The window dedicated to Lillian Bounds Disney reads: Lilly’s Bountiful Blooms / Flowers & Fancies / Inspiring Worlds of Color and Happiness.
A Main Street U.S.A. window at Disneyland is one of the highest honors awarded by the Walt Disney Company — a tradition started by Walt Disney himself.
Lillian Disney has been previously honored at Disneyland with the Lilly Belle parlor car on the Disneyland Railroad and a petrified tree along the Rivers of America in Frontierland.
The petrified tree was a bit of an inside joke between Walt and Lillian. Walt bought the five ton stump while driving through Pike’s Petrified Forest in Colorado two days before their wedding anniversary in 1956. Walt joked it was an anniversary gift for Lillian and a year later Lillian presented the petrified tree to Disneyland as an anniversary gift to Walt.
Friends and family joined Walt and Lillian for their 30th wedding anniversary celebration with dinner in the Golden Horseshoe and a ride aboard the Mark Twain Riverboat — just a few days before the grand opening of Disneyland on July 17, 1955.
Lillian Disney’s window faces the new “Walt Disney – A Magical Life” animatronic show debuting Thursday, July 17 in the Disneyland Opera House.