DEWITT W. LYLE

Ardent sport fans often sit around and reflect on the sport luminaries of yesterday and of yesteryear, and a few may wonder what some of those many sport veterans who paraded across yesteryear's sport pages are doing today. The wondering is as far as the reflection goes, however, because the oldsters are again crowded off the scene by the flame and new aspirations and ambitions of the day's youth. The former sport stars do not just drop into the caverns of oblivion, however, but usually they assume their rightful places in the rank and file of society and business and because of their unusual earlier life, usually contribute more fully to the expansion and progress of civic and community life. A typical example of this sort of figure is DeWitt W. Lyle, crusading son of Ireland.

Mr. Lyle was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1891, of staunch Scotch-Irish parentage. His father was John Henry Lyle, born in Richmond, Indiana, in 1861; and the mother was Mary C. Wagner before her marriage, born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1864. Mr. Lyle was the operator of a wholesale flour company before the family's trek to California in 1926. DeWitt was one of six children and was educated in the public schools of Minnesota.

Mr. Lyle's ancestry goes luminously back still further than his parents, however. Mr. Lyle's grandfather on his mother's side was Col. John Peter Wagner, colonial pioneer who first made his home in Scohanie and who in 1750 built the old Fort Wayne, still standing. Matthew Lyle, great great grandfather of DeWitt Lyle, came from Ireland in 1741, settling in the Rock Bridge County, Virginia. DeWitt Lyle's grandfather was Major John Scott Lyle, a major in the Civil War.

After finishing school in 1910, he started playing professional baseball, a sport he had been considerably adept at in school. His first chance was with the Hopkins, Minnesota, club playing in the "bush leagues". In 1910, he caught on with the Minneapolis nine and from there cut a swath through several minor leagues as a pitcher with his spit ball, a method of pitching which hindered his chances in reaching the big leagues. After 1913, he began devoting the falls of the year to professional football, playing with the Minneapolis Marines until 1918. From 1920 to 1921 he played with the Rock Island Rocks and from 1922 to 1923 with the major league football entry of the Green Bay Packers. In 1923 he quit both baseball and football and with his brother came to Paso Robles, California, and opened a restaurant. In 1912, Mr. Lyle had filed a claim in Montana, working the ranch until 1919, and it was there, while "batching" on the range, that he learned to cook. Consequently he took over the cooking duties of the restaurant while the brother handled the "front". This system was used until the restaurant began bearing the fruits of success and an orthodox cook was employed. With modest beginning he and his brother have operated three restaurants and have sold and enlarged until now they operate only one large restaurant in Paso Robles.

Another important event in the year of 1911 in the life of DeWitt W. Lyle took place on June 30, at Crosby, North Dakota, when Mr. Lyle married Grace A. Nagler. Miss Nagler was a native of Winona, Minnesota, born there April 20, 1891. Socially active, she is a past matron of the Eastern Star, past district president of the P.T.A., past president of Saint James Guild, past member of the Democratic committee, and takes a prominent part in all social and civic events. Two children born to the union are Lois Margarie Lyle, born January 30, 1919, Fargo, N.D., now a pre-law student at U.C.L.A.; and Beverly Joy Lyle, born August 25, 1926 in Paso Robles.

Source: "History of San Luis Obispo County, State of California its people and its resources" ⁶³²