OBF Honored Couple: Starr and Yonok Warson
Orange Blossom week is April 7-14
This year marks the 86th anniversary of Orange Blossom that began in 1932. It started as a joint effort between Lindsay and Strathmore to celebrate the crop in Tulare County.
The theme for this year’s festival is “Driven to be the Best.”
This year’s Honored Couple, Star and Yonok Warson, has a long history in Lindsay.
Lindsay will celebrate Orange Blossom week April 7 through April 14, with the parade on Saturday, April 14.
The Warson family and Lindsay date back to 1909, when Starr’s grandparents moved to Lindsay for the “Orange Rush”.
They moved here from Los Angeles and purchased 80 acres on Road 208, in which they built a house and planted oranges. Starr’s grandfather, opened Warson Drug Store on the corner of Honolulu and Sweet Briar until a fire forced its closing. His grandfather then became a manager for Hillside Packing Co., a director of the Lindsay Savings Bank and a director at Lindsaystrathmore Irrigation District, where he was instrumental in the longstanding Lindsay water rights lawsuit that finally ended in 1937.
Starr’s father, Dan went to World War II and returned to California afterward to attend Univesity of California at Berkeley at the Davis agriculture campus. He returned to Lindsay and married Starr’s mother, Blanche Tovey. Blanche was an early special education teacher with Tulare County Schools. Dan planted an orchard and grew nursery trees for many of the early groves in the area.
Starr was born and raised in Lindsay and attended Lindsay schools until high school, when his family moved to Tulare. He continued his education at College of the Sequoias, where he studied architecture. He later moved to Santa Barbara and worked for Phillips Petroleum. In 1970, Starr enlisted in the U.S. Army and trained in demolitions. He is a Vietnam veteran who received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for Valor.
Yonok was born off the Southern Coast of South Korea. She went to nursing college in Korea and worked at St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul. In 1976, she moved to the United States to pursue higher education. She arrived at Los Angeles International Airport and traveled through California to the Sequoias and Yosemite. She remembers driving through the oil fields on Highway 65 and the wonderful fragrance of the orange blossoms from the Lindsay groves. Amazingly enough she would end up calling Lindsay her home for over two decades.
Starr and Yonok met in Miami, Fla., while Starr was on vacation. When they met, he was instantly captivated. They spoke of Lindsay and Lindsay Olives and the conversations continued long distance after Starr’s return home. They kept in contact as friends and later traveled to Washington state to move Yonok’s piano. Their trip was delightful and Starr started to visit Yonok often. A little over a year later, Yonok moved to California. They married in March of 1979, just in time for the orange blossoms!
Starr was now in his third year of college and Yonok started at UC Riverside. While at Riverside, Star signed up for ROTC for a reserve Army commission and earned his bachelor’s degree the next year. After graduation, Starr enrolled in a Master’s of Business Administration program at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., and they moved, this time as three, as daughter Jessica was born.
Daughter Nichole was next born and the now family of four would move yet again. This time, they would move to Kentucky for Starr to complete his officer training. The family would later be stationed in El Paso, Texas. During that time, Yonok worked at the Army Community Services section, helping soldiers and their families. Starr then left the Army a second time and finished his Master’s of Business and Science degree at University of Texas, El Paso and took a job with Tonka Toys.
Looking in a new direction, Yonok, earned her bachelor’s in Political Science at U.T. and began a Masters of Public Administration program. She later opened an apparel store and oversaw the operations and purchases from Dallas, New York and Los Angeles. In the next years, she expanded from one to four stores, all while teaching English as a Second Langue classes to fellow Koreans.
The family continued to grow as John and Chris arrived while living in El Paso. They decided that Starr would change fields, so in 1990 Starr returned to California to go to law school. Yonok stayed in El Paso, caring for the children and running the businesses. Starr graduated with a Juris Doctorate from Western State College of Law.
Starr’s mother was still in Lindsay and getting older, so after some discussions, Yonok felt it was time to move back home to Lindsay. In 1995, Starr, Yonok and the children loaded a U-haul truck, their pick-up, towed two cars and moved back to California.
Now back in California, Starr and Yonok immersed themselves in the community. Yonok joined the Parent Teacher Organization, the Lindsay Hospital Guild and the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce as an ambassador. She also taught weekly classes to Korean and second-generation Korean children at the Korean Presbyterian Church and helped at Immanuel Baptist Church as an AWANA Leader. She helped form the Gifted and Talented Education Program at Strathmore Elementary, where her children attended.
She stayed busy as an active member of the School Site Council, School Band Booster, a substitute teacher for Porterville Unified School District, a Tulare County Office of Education Academic Decathlon judge, a member of the Boys & Girls Club, a Commissioner on the Tulare County Youth Commission and work with the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board. She is also currently a member of the PEO, Chapter EH. Yonok has received numerous awards, including Volunteer of the Year, Ambassador of the Year (twice) and School Volunteer of the Year.
Starr has been a Kiwanis member for over 20 years and has served as president and director for several terms. He played a big role in organizing the Kiwanis Soccer Tournament for seven years and also the Bike Rodeo, that still takes place today. He was an AWANA Leader, soccer coach and also participated in the TCOE Mock Trial. Starr was also named Lindsay Man of the Year in 2005.
Both Starr and Yonok are life members of the Lindsay Cultural Arts Council, assist in the Lindsay election polls and help with numerous Kiwanis activities.
Starr and Yonok feel that Lindsay is a great place to live and thank the community and their family members for being a part of everything they do. They are humbled to be chosen as the Honored Couple for the 2018 Orange Blossom Festival and can’t wait for the festivities to begin!