‘Yogi’s’ Goodby : After 25 Years, Mailman Leaves His Stamp on Neighborhood

When Frank Richards began delivering mail in the Newport West subdivision of Huntington Beach in 1963, the 296 homes in the housing tract were spanking new and filled with young families.

In the 25 years since, Richards has attended weddings, funerals and other special gatherings of those who live along his mail route. “They’re like my family,” the 64-year-old postman said.

About 100 members of his postal route “family” threw a surprise farewell party for him Saturday on the lawn of Nancy Bailey’s house in the 22000 block of Luau Lane in Huntington Beach.

After 33 years as a postman, Richards is retiring at the end of this month. “I hate to go,” he said. “The heart says no, but the body, with all its aches and pains, says go.”

The neighborhood folks who threw the party for Richards as he made his last Saturday delivery also had mixed emotions. “We’re glad for him because he’s finally able to retire,” said Bob Mann, a 41-year-old schoolteacher. “But we’re sad, too, because we’ll miss him so much.”

The saddest seemed to be the children, who called Richards by his nickname, “Yogi,” after the “Yogi Bear” animated cartoon character.

“I like Yogi because he talks to me,” said Amber Tittle, 4, whose mother was one of the children who followed Richards around on his route in the early days.

“He is such a jolly, friendly soul that when he first started the children would follow him around like he was the Pied Piper of Hamlin,” said Margie Powers, a day-care operator who has had her mail delivered by Richards for 24 years.

That special bond between the children and Richards continues today.

“I’m so sad because he’s so much fun to be around,” said John Mann, 8. “He’s like a comedian.”

Having become a neighborhood institution, much folklore has developed about how Richards got the “Yogi” moniker--and equally important--who first came up with the name.

According to Richards: “The kids started calling me Yogi Bear over 20 years ago. It got started with the Hatfield boys. . . . Well, actually, they’re not boys now. They’re grown up with their own families.

“Anyway, in those days they were kids, and they used to follow me around asking me what my name was,” Richards said. “I wouldn’t tell them my name, so the Hatfield boys started calling me ‘Yogi Bear’. . . . A lot of parents to this day think my name is Yogi.”

But Carol Youngkin, 30, said Richards was never gruff and played a bigger and funnier role in getting his nickname.

“He’d be playing around with us kids, talking to us in this great voice that sounded just like Yogi Bear did on television,” said Youngkin, who began following Richards around when she was 5 years old.

“He’d greet us kids by saying: ‘Hey, Boo-Boo,’ ” she recalled. “So, everyday when he’d deliver the mail, we’d pretend that he was Yogi and we were Boo-Boo, Yogi’s sidekick.”

Parents appreciate the kindness Richards has shown heir children. “He’s the only mailman I know who returns children’s shoes,” said Peter Buckley, a 57-year-old engineer.

“When my daughter Ellen was 3 she used to leave her shoes all over the neighborhood,” Buckley said, recalling the exploits of his daughter, who is now 19 years old. “He’d come up to me, shoes in hand, and say: ‘Mr. Buckley, I think these are Ellen’s.”

Richards has been many things to the neighborhood: comedian, watchman and friend. All the while he still managed to deliver the mail on time and to the right houses. “He stayed busy,” observed Pat Reynolds, a 52-year-old homemaker.

“He wouldn’t chitchat too long,” she said. “Sure, he’d talk with the children, but he did it while he was walking down the sidewalk delivering the mail.

“Since he’s been here as long as the houses have been here, he knows everything that goes on in the neighborhood. But he doesn’t gossip!”