Warner was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 23, 1919, the oldest of three children. When he was still a baby, his parents moved to Tulsa where they remained for many years. Two sisters were born there and, when the family moved to Oklahoma City in 1938, his parents adopted a third girl who was 17 years younger than Warner.
Warner’s childhood was spent much as any other boy’s, and he was always interested in sports. He especially enjoyed wrestling, and his sisters tell of the many times he would try out various holds on them on the living room floor. His father, who was an executive with Bell Telephone, had him take golf lessons. Although he had great potential, he became frustrated too easily when he didn’t do as well as he wanted to.
After high school graduation, Warner went to St. Gregory’s College in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Here he did well in most subjects but failed Chemistry. This became a family joke many years later when his two daughters came across his college transcripts; they both had earned A’s in Chemistry. His father had hoped that Warner would become a lawyer, but after a miserable third year of college at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, he decided to become an actor. From then on, speech and drama courses played an important role in his life. He studied two years at Oklahoma City University before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps. in the fall of 1941.
After basic training in St. Louis, Missouri, Warner was ordered to Luke Field, just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. It was at a U.S.O. dance in Phoenix that he met his future wife, Helen Vyborny. They were married in July, 1942, and eventually Warner was shipped overseas where he spent one year in England and then served in Belgium, France and Germany before being discharged as a Staff Sergeant on November 13, 1945.
After the war, Warner and Helen moved to Culver City, California, where Warner enrolled at Geller Theatre Workshop to continue his studies towards an acting career. He was very enthused about acting at this point and after two years of study, he was accepted for doing summer stock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. However, he realized that he had a family to support (daughter Laurel Lee was born while he was at Geller’s) so he gave up his dream and moved to Oklahoma City. Here he tried his hand at office work for the Magnolia Oil Company, but his heart wasn’t in it, and in the spring of 1949 (second daughter Cheryl was born meanwhile) moved to Merced, California, which was Helen’s home town. Here he took some summer school courses and began teaching that fall.
After one year, he was sure this was to be his life’s work, but the Army intervened and he was recalled into service and sent to Japan for ten months during the Korean conflict. After his return, he taught another year in Merced and then took a year off to get his teaching credential at Fresno State (he had been teaching under an emergency credential). His wife and daughters saw him graduate, and then the family moved to Whittier. Warner taught at the Little Lake School District from 1953 until his “retirement” in 1979. For many of those years, he held a second job as a recreation leader at Los Nietos Park, and he also couched track during his tenure at Little Lake.
Always interested in show business, Warner was able to see virtually all of the big stars during the frequent trips he and Helen took to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, starting in 1957. It was always a thrill for him to see an especially good act or to meet one of the stars in person. Among his favorite stars in the ’60s were Sergio Franchi, Tom Jones, Mel Torme, Sammy Davis Jr,. Peggy Lee and Mickey Rooney. One night in Las Vegas when Warner saw Mickey Rooney in the audience, he went up to him and told him how great he thought he was. Warner is also an avid movie-goer and enjoys giving movie reviews to his family and friends.
When Warner retired from Little Lake School District in 1979, he and Helen bought a condo in Heritage Square and moved to Las Vegas. Both loved the city and had been there many times a year for the past several years. Through Helen’s longtime friend, Helen Clark, they had also invested in a couple of rental houses in Las Vegas while still living in California. Shortly after the move, Warner obtained a substitute teaching credential. He worked steadily as a substitute teacher until 1991. At that time, Warner started working occasionally as a security guard, finally retiring “for real” in 1996.
Warner passed in 2003, three years after Helen. Daughters Laurel Lee and Cheryl scattered some of both of their ashes at a Vyborny family reunion held at Vyborny's Haven in 2004..
1996
Family Reunion in Whittier - 1968
Midpines Thanksgiving - 1954