A Hollister icon celebrates his birthday
Gene O’Neill has always appreciated a joke so when one occurred
to him 45 years ago he immediately put it into play.
He came across a glass eye and found the rest of the necessary
components in his garage. O’Neill smiled to himself as he carefully
assembled a battery, an electrical coil and other odds and ends
into a collage, then submitted it to the San Benito County Fair Art
Division.
He was flabbergasted when judges announced it to be the Best of
Show, then roared.
”
Either someone saw a surreal significance in it or just enjoyed
a good laugh,
”
he said.
A Hollister icon celebrates his birthday
Gene O’Neill has always appreciated a joke so when one occurred to him 45 years ago he immediately put it into play.
He came across a glass eye and found the rest of the necessary components in his garage. O’Neill smiled to himself as he carefully assembled a battery, an electrical coil and other odds and ends into a collage, then submitted it to the San Benito County Fair Art Division.
He was flabbergasted when judges announced it to be the Best of Show, then roared. “Either someone saw a surreal significance in it or just enjoyed a good laugh,” he said.
O’Neill has been a Hollister resident all of his life except for military service.
His parents had another son, Bill, and daughter, Virginia, and they all went to Sacred Heart Church every Sunday.
As a boy becoming aware of the world, he found he had a quick mind and put it to work in many ways. His boyhood coincided with the growth of radio, and he spent hours tinkering with radio sets.
O’Neill was a member of the 1939 class of San Benito High School and matriculated that fall at the University of Santa Clara. He was midway through his junior year when he was drafted into the US Army during World War II.
After extensive training he was sent to New Guinea as a radio operator and at war’s end was in Manila.
Upon return to civilian life O’Neill opened a store to sell surplus military goods, then later owned a men’s clothing store on San Benito Street. Between those ventures he married Geraldine Lange on May 3, 1947, what he considers his major accomplishment.
They are parents of Ellen O’Neill, a retired naval officer living in Florida, and Gwynn Renfrow and Joy Davidson, both of Hollister. The O’Neills delight in their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and frequently convene for family occasions.
O’Neill served as mayor of Hollister and Chamber president in the 1960s. He retired in the mid-1970s after selling Garcia Brothers Saloon.
For years he was an ardent mushroom gatherer, and a gleaner, having access to many private orchards or vegetable fields through friendship with their owners. O’Neill’s love of cooking continues, though, and he maintains he prepares the best chili verde in the county, and, “No one makes better corned beef and cabbage.”
He has one major impediment. As St. Patrick Day nears, his speech becomes so thick with an Irish brogue that he is almost incomprehensible. So anyone wishing to extend good wishes for his 87th birthday – March 7 – had better do it now because in a day or so they won’t be able to understand his answer.
