Dennis Richardson

Denise Richardson wrote to Historic Saranac Lake in 2015:

"My dad, Dennis Richardson, was a lab technician at [Will Rogers] hospital from 1960 to 1969 and spoke very fondly of his time there. He said it opened new opportunities for him in research, which he never would have been able to try otherwise. He was extremely proud of his work there; he is listed as co-author in a paper by Fred Ayvazian and mentioned in another paper by Morris Dworski. He had wonderful memories of working at Will Rogers.

My mother, Joyce Richardson, worked as a nurse at Will Rogers in the early 1960s. She was working there when she was pregnant with me. It turns out that I was born on Lila Lee's birthday when Miss Lee was a patient at Will Rogers. I have a card and teddy bear that Lila Lee gave my mother and I treasure them. I have always been intrigued with Lila Lee because of our connection and purchased as many books as I can with information about her and videos of her silent movies. I also finally self-published a book this year, and while it's fictional, I used the story of Lila Lee's kind gift in it. I'm not exactly sure of the years my mother worked at Will Rogers. She took some time off work when my younger brother was born, and she later became the office nurse for Dr. Frank Trudeau.

My dad passed away earlier this year, and I have taken on the responsibility of going through all of his photos, which is no easy task because he was a dedicated photographer. I have found a few photographs of Will Rogers as well as some of Winter Carnivals in the 1960s. I have a few negatives but not many. I can't identify all of the people and acts in the pictures, but I know some of the pictures include Julius LaRosa, which I believe would make the pictures from 1964. Dad spoke of shows that were done at Will Rogers, and I'm not sure if some of these pictures were taken at Will Rogers itself or rotary shows. Would you need negatives of pictures, or is a scanned copy enough? I would gladly get you anything you think would be useful.

My dad would have been excited to know about your film, and I'm looking forward to purchasing a copy for myself as well as my sister and brother. I look forward to hearing from you when the DVD is available."