Topic: Herbert Lucius Lyman 1877-1953
Topic type:
The Lyman Twins - Herbert and Howard Lyman - famous vaudevillians settled in Central Florida in 1913.
The Lyman Twins - Herbert and Howard Lyman - famous vaudevillians settled in Central Florida in 1913. Lyman High School was named for one of the brothers due to the contribution he and his wife made to the Longwood / Altamonte Springs communities.
Herbert Lucius Lyman died on 4 July 1953 in Daytona Beach, Florida while visiting the city - 30 years after his brother Howard C. Lyman who died on 7 July 1923 while visiting the beach at Passagrille, Florida. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Section L, lot 12-5. Herbert Lucius Lyman and his sister in law Emma Abbott Lyman are listed as the co-owners of the cemetery plots, purchased on 18 July 1923 apparently at the time of his brothers untimely death.
Kevin Scott Collier, Art Director for the Grand Haven Tribune newspaper in Grand Haven, Michigan and writer of Christian children's books, is writing a book about the Lyman Twins. This is part of an email he sent about the Lymans and his book in April 2011:
Herbert and Howard Lyman (and their wives Patti and Emma) loved Florida. The twins got into vaudeville stage performing just before they turned age 20, and while they first went to New York, they lived the southern coast.... These fellas were a HUGE nationwide sensation, I kid you not. They retired from stage in 1911, but if they had been born 15 years later, they'd been in films competing with The Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin. As I got into my research months ago I was shocked to see the ONLY real memorial to a "Lyman" was the [high] school there [on Ronald Reagan Blvd. in Longwood]. There's nothing here, and they grew up here, their father was a famous Captain here. They spent summers here right until close to 1920 when I believe the brothers sold their cottage in Spring Lake, a few miles from here over the bridge.
Herbert almost killed a kid on his way to being a stage star. Herbert and Howard along with other Grand Haven, MI boys used to stage plays in a barn behind Brandstetter's hardware store and in one play in April 1891 Herbert (playing a wild west lawman) was supposed to shoot "the bad guy" played by Johnny Brandstetter. All these kids were 10-13 years in age. They used a real gun, but some kid forgot to load it with blanks, and Herman shot Johnny... luckily, it was a graze across the forehead... but the barn was full of an audience of kids who ran out of the barn screaming for their lives. This article is included in my book, too.
YouTube video promoting book http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57KTIV0z4aM
