George Meade Easby

George Gordon Meade Easby (June 3, 1918 – December 11, 2005), also known as Meade or Mr. Easby was an American artist, actor and film producer. He also served as an employee of the U.S. State Department for over twenty-five years and as a talk host on an AM radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Easby was the great-grandson of General George Meade, victor of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg against Robert E. Lee, and a descendant of seven signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

Early life and family background Easby was born on June 3, 1918, in Philadelphia. His father was Major May Stevenson Easby, a banker in Philadelphia and World War I hero. He also had a younger brother Steven who died at a very young age in 1931 from some type of childhood disease. The family "traces its roots to Easby Abbey in 12th Century Yorkshire, England; that crossed over to America in 1683 aboard the Welcome with William Penn, and that counts among its descendants three – "at least three that I know of," says Easby – signers of the Declaration of Independence." General George Meade, victor of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, was Easby's great-grandfather through Meade's daughter. "My mother's mother was General (George G.) Meade's daughter," said Easby. By the fall of the same year, he began studying illustration at the University of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia.

After the start of World War II in 1939, Easby was drafted into the United States Army and was assigned to patrol (by air) the Atlantic Coast. Easby's furniture items were often traded at auctions such as Christie's and Sotheby's in the above one million dollar range each. Among many of the antique watches and clocks left to Easby, one was made for the 18th-century Queen Marie Antoinette of France. his first vehicle (the Packard) and a few others.

Following the January 1969 death of his father, Easby lived by himself in the family's Baleroy Mansion, located in the historically affluent Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was given the title of the "Most Haunted Home in America", due to the supposed supernatural beings that inhabited the 32-room mansion. In 1990 Easby told The Philadelphia Inquirer, "The neighbors worry that it might become a Disney World with buses and tourists, but heavens, I've assured them that it won't." According to a 2008 Philadelphia court record:

Easby was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. He was known as an extremely kind and generous person.