Derrill Hart

Derrill Hart was born Derrill Wason Hart on December 12, 1892, in Pisgah, Kentucky to Rebecca Wright Wasson Hart and Dr. Robert Singleton Hart.  His family was one of the pioneer families which settled Pisgah in Woodford County.  His father was a Confederate veteran having been a lieutenant of the 22nd Alabama Regiment under General Bragg and was a well-known physician in Fayette and Woodford counties in Kentucky.  As a teenager, Hart raised prize-winning poultry.

Hart played tennis and basketball at Kentucky.  The UK yearbook described his play during the 1912 season: “Derrill was the steadiest man of the five and pulled off any number of brilliant and startling stunts into the bargain. His work passing was sure and swift, while his shots for baskets were in many cases little short of phenomenal. He led the other fellows a merry chase throughout the whole of every game and wound up the season with an enviable record.”

He was captain of the tennis team in 1916. He was also a member of the Sigma Chi social fraternity, Lamp and Cross, and Mystic Thirteen.  He was also a member of the yearbook editorial staff.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912.  Following graduation, Hart became a teacher at Lexington High School and coached the basketball team for two years.  He earned his Master of Arts degree at Kentucky in 1916.  His master’s thesis was “A Philosophical Study of the Kentucky Mountaineer, as Based Upon Surnames and the Vernacular.”  The same year he enlisted in the navy as an apprentice seaman and two years later was commissioned an ensign.

Hart, at the close of the war, became connected with the Doubleday Page Company, New York, publishing the Garden Magazine, later the American Home. From 1919 to 1934 he was associated with various horticultural publications and in 1934 he became editor of the garden section of the New York Sun. He later became advertising manager of the Flower Grower.  He married Rita Allaine D’Aleze, a native of Anjers, France, on December 20, 1933, in Manhattan.

Hart died at his home in New York on June 16, 1936.