In the 1920s, Walt Disney created a new cartoon character he hoped would help his studio recover from a business setback - and Mortimer Mouse was born.
"Not Mortimer," said his wife, Lillian. "It's too formal. How about Mickey?"Lillian Disney, who not only named the symbol of what would become The Walt Disney Co. but also became a conservative check to her husband's daring genius, died peacefully in her sleep Tuesday. She was 98.
She had suffered a stroke on Monday, the 31st anniversary of her husband's death in 1966.
Lillian Disney did not live to see the completion of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, an addition to the downtown Music Center that she seeded with a $50 million donation 10 years ago.
"This really is the end of an era for the Disneys," said Walt Disney Co. Vice Chairman Roy E. Disney, the son of Disney's late brother, Roy O. Disney.
She was the primary sounding board for her husband, who would run his revolutionary ideas - from "Snow White" to Disneyland - by her for approval. The careful balance to her husband's brashness, she wouldn't let him take too much of a gamble unless and until his thinking was sound.
Lillian Disney grew up in Lapwai on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Idaho.
Walt Disney died in 1966.