Yvonne Van Dyne

Yvonne Marie Castille Van Dyne was born December 9, 1900 in New York to an upper-class family of French immigrants. She spent much of her school years in France. She was in France when the Great War began, and by the age of 15 she was working as a nurse in the field hospitals.

It was here that her psychic gifts began to manifest. Her ability to sense the emotions and pain of others caused her a great deal of trauma, until she began to learn how to control what she now calls her “greater senses.” Still, after four years of war, she was grateful to leave France at the end of 1918 for the peace and tranquility of a women’s college in New England.

A sense of compassion and desire for justice didn’t allow her to stay quiet for long, however. She soon joined the crusade for women’s suffrage, and rejoiced with many when the effort was successful in 1920. She completed her education in 1923, earning a master’s degree, and took the bold step (for a woman) of entering the diplomatic service. Natural ability coupled with subtle use of her empathic gift made Yvonne a successful diplomat. She was posted first to China, then to the Soviet Union. It was during the latter posting that she meta young lawyer named Arthur Van Dyne. She married him, and retired from the service, in 1932.

Arthur Van Dyne became a district attorney in Chicago, and made a name for himself as a crusader against the gangsters that were major powers in that city. On New Year’s Eve 1935, he was murdered in retribution. Yvonne was able to search out the killer, and his bosses. Soon after, she left Chicago and settled in San Francisco.

She has worked for the FDA (during the frantic investigation of the Elixir Sulfanilamide disaster) as well as for the State Department, although she is now semi-retired from the service. Yvonne is now married to the Silver Ghost and helps him on occasion. She also keeps scrapbooks of his exploits, for love’s sake, an effort she under-took secretly shortly after they met.

Yvonne is tall, blonde, and a classic beauty. Her psychic empathy allows her to sense, and to a degree manipulate, the emotions and pain of others. In desperate situations, she can even heal another person’s wounds or disease —though to do so means suffering, at least for a short time, the same wounds or disease herself. She is also capable of seeing the otherwise invisible “aura” that surrounds all living things.

Appeared in:

• Daughter of Pestilence
• Red Shadows, Endless Night
• The Magistrate