Even as a child star, Hayden Panettiere was a Rockland kid, attending local public schools, hanging out at the local swim club, participating in recreational activities that the county has to offer.
The news of her death on Aug. 16, at age 36, left her former hometown in mourning. Many locals remembered her fondly.
"Hayden Panettierre was part of the Children’s Shakespeare Theatre when she was a child," read an Aug. 18 Instagram post from Children's Shakespeare Theatre, a company for kids age 8-18, based in her hometown. "We send our love to her daughter, parents, family and friends. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
Panettiere was born in Palisades on Aug. 21, 1989, to Lesley Vogel, a former soap opera actress, and Alan "Skip" Panettiere,
a New York City Fire Department captain. The family lived a while in Congers then moved to a home in Snedens Landing.
Paniettiere, in her autobiography, "This is me: A reckoning," recalled her suburban childhood playing in neighborhood friends' backyards, going to the local swim club, sometimes visiting the homes of neighbors, like Bill Murray and Björk.
Hayden attended South Orangetown schools, including William O. Schaefer and Cottage Lane elementaries and South Orangetown Middle School, where she played on the volleyball team in seventh grade, before a taxing acting schedule led her parents to agree to homeschooling.
At 12, talking about acting and her pet bird
In 2002, The Journal News sat down with Hayden to talk about her latest move. She was then 12, and the family still resided on Washington Springs Road known as the "French Ivy House" in the historic Snedens Landing neighborhood of Palisades, a hamlet in Orangetown.
Hayden was on local movie screens in "Joe Somebody" with Tim Allen.
Already a seasoned actor, Hayden in an interview with The Journal News said of Allen: "You're supposed to be serious on the movie set — `in the moment,'" she says, "but that doesn't happen with Tim."
It was early January 2002, and Hayden was excited about her Christmas present: A bird she named Calliope.
"She's the sweetest parrot in the entire world," said the star, described as smitten in the article. "She runs all over the place."
She had already captured attention in various roles, and had gained lots of attention for her role in “Remember the Titans,” released in 2000, the true story of a coach trying to integrate a Virginia high school football team in 1971.
Hayden played Sheryl Yoast, the assistant coach’s football-loving daughter. The real Sheryl Yoast died in 1996 of an undetected heart condition at the age of 34.
'You want people to like you ... for you.'
Soon after that 2002 interview, Hayden’s career led to her being homeschooled.
The family sold the home years later. (It’s back on the market, listed for $3.695 million).
Her little brother, Jansen, was also an actor. He had resided in Nyack as an adult.
Jansen Panettiere died in 2023 at Nyack Hospital. He was just 28, and the cause was believed to be an enlarged heart.
Panettierre in "This is me: A reckoning" makes clear the harsh realities of childhood fame, her journey with postpartum depression and substance use disorder and the hard road to stability.
In her book, she recalls her childhood home and neighborhood adventures, driving down Route 9W to the PIP and over the George Washington Bridge into the city for auditions, and bullying she felt during her public school days.
Panettiere, in the book's prologue written in 2025, said she was staying in Rockland at her dad and stepmom's home in Rockland.
Hayden, even back at age 12, took a somewhat jaundiced eye to the pitfalls fame can have.
In that 2002 interview, she told The Journal New writer Linda Lombroso that she liked fans approaching her on the street and asking for her autograph, but ignored kids who want to be her friend just because she's a movie star.
"Some of my friends, when I first met them, they didn't know I was an actress," she said that day in her family’s Palisades home. "You want people to like you ... for you."
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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Hayden Panettiere's childhood in Rockland County remembered
