Edith Macefield (August 21, 1921 – June 15, 2008) was a real estate holdout who received worldwide attention in 2006 when she turned down an offer widely reported as $1 million to sell her house to make way for a commercial development in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Instead, the five-story project was built surrounding her 108-year-old farmhouse, where she died at age 86 in 2008. In the process, she became something of a folk hero. After she died, Macefield willed her house to the new building's construction superintendent, Barry Martin, in gratitude for his friendship and caretaker role. On May 26, 2009, Disney publicists attached balloons to the roof of Macefield's house, as a promotional tie-in to their film, Up, in which an aging widower (voiced by Ed Asner)'s home is similarly surrounded by looming development. Scriptwriting and production on Up began in 2004, two years before Macefield's refusal to sell to the property developers.

KING