KNOTT, WALTER; AND KNOTT, CORDELIA

born Dec. 11, 1889, San Bernardino, Calif., U.S. died Dec. 3, 1981, Buena Park, Calif. born Jan. 23, 1890 died April 23, 1974, Buena Park ne Hornaday husband-and-wife founders of Knott's Berry Farm, a farm and nursery in Southern California that evolved into the oldest and one of the largest thematic amusement parks in the United States. The son of a farmer, Walter Knott grew up in Pomona, Calif., where he met and married his high-school friend Cordelia. In 1920 they leased 10 acres (4 hectares) of land in Buena Park in nearby Orange county and grew berries, selling them from a roadside stand and to local grocers. Cordelia also sold her own preserves, relishes, and candy, and in 1928 they opened a tea room and berry market, which in the 1930s evolved into a restaurant (known especially for chicken dinners) and an amusement park initially featuring rides and a mining ghost town. By the time of their deaths, Knott's Berry Farm had grown to 150 acres (60 hectares); its amusement complex had expanded to celebrate such themes as the Old West, early Spanish California, the 1920s flapper era, and a replica of Independence Hall, Philadelphia; and the restaurant capacity had increased to 20 dining rooms accommodating 1,800 patrons. The Knotts became associated with their best-known berry, the boysenberry, in 1932, when Walter assumed the nurturing of six hybrid plants developed by an Anaheim horticulturist, Rudolph Boysen, who had developed a cross between a loganberry, red raspberry, and blackberry. Within a decade, production of boysenberries had become hugely prosperous. In 1960, however, the berry farm in Buena Park ended, overtaken by the amusement park, and the Knott family acquired extensive acreage near Modesto, central California, for growing berries.