[ bird caws ] im jamie colby, thrilled to be on my latest adventure, here in San Francisco. The woman at the heart of this story also loved to travel and took home the smallest of souvenirs from every place she visited. Those tiny keepsakes could add up to abigpayday for her heirs. My name is lise mousel. For over half a century, my glamorous aunt naomi traveled the world in style. She always had a surprise for us, but the biggest one came after she passed away. [ knock on door ] i want to know more about those surprises, so i meet lise and her mother, carol, at the condo where aunt naomi lived for more than 30 years. Lise now calls the place home. Oh, i love the way its decorated minimalist. It wasnt always true, when naomi was here. Really . Yes, there was stuff everywhere. There was furniture and there were antiquities, and then there were the beads. Beads everywhere. Beads . Beads. Naomi lindstroms story begins in a tiny logging town in british columbia, canada, where shes born in
[ bird caws ] im jamie colby, and today im on old route 66 in central illinois. Im heading to the small farming town of lincoln, where the strangest of inheritance stories unfolded. On a monday morning in july 2012, farmer bob pharis heads out to mow hay on some land he leases from an old friend named ray fulk. And it was very uncommon for ray not to come out and talk to me. And then i smelled something. I happened to look over and the bin door was open and that was not a good sign. I just went over there, and then i found him. And then i called 911 and. The county coroner, acting on info from a neighbor, contacts attorney don behle to inform him his 71year old client has died of heart failure. Behle cannot even remember fulk. I hadnt seen him in 15 years, and so i had no idea who theyre talking about. How strange is it that were here right now talking to you about this guy you barely remember . [ laughs ] its very strange. Don checks his files and realizes he indeed worked with someon
Involving the iconic american painter and illustrator. My name is don trachte jr. My siblings and i were supposed to inherit from our father one of Norman Rockwells bestknown paintings. What we got was a mystery. What the heck had dad done with it . Hi, don. Im jamie. Hi, jamie. So nice to meet you. So great to be in vermont. What is this place . This was my dads studio. Back in the 1950s, dons dad, Donald Trachte sr. , is a syndicated cartoonist working on the popular strip henry, which features a baldheaded boy, simply illustrated with clean lines and minimal backgrounds. Can you support a wife and four kids drawing henry . It was a good living. My dad had to come up with all the gags. Really . And he would have a sheet of paper next to his drawing board, and usually, hed come up with about three or four gags at a time. Were they gags about you kids . Well, sometimes they were. So life for the trachtes is pretty good here in arlington, a picturesque artists colony with a worldfamous