Bobby Petrie reports that Leon went to work for Mohawk Rubber Company right out of high
school as a tire builder. He left and went into the Air Force and stayed for four years. Bobby and
Lee Williams went down and visited Leon in Biloxi, Mississippi at the Air Force Base. Leon left the
Air Force and went to Bastrop, LA. He worked for an adjustment company in Bastrop for about two
years.Then he moved to Paragould Arkansas. He put a company into Paragould and Jonesboro.
Bobby says that Leon was very successful and had built a nice home and purchased a private
airplane. He had married Gerry in Bastrop and they had one daughter. Leon was flying his wife
to a doctor's appointment in Little Rock and came in during a heavy fog. The plane crashed on a
golf course in Little Rock and Leon and his wife were both killed. Bobby was not sure when this
happened.
Jean Sugg located Leon's daughter, Beth, who is now a pharmacist in Louisiana.
She submitted this report:
Jim--I have a little bit of news for you--this is from Leon's daughter Beth--she lives in
Sterlington, LA.
Your information was correct about the plane crash on a golf course--Leon was flying the plane
and he and his wife were killed--the trip was for a doctor's appointment--it was July of 1979. so
he was about 41 years old.
Leon was in the service--don't know which branch or how long--but after he got out, he went to
Bastrop, LA and met his soon-to-be wife Gerry--they married in 1963--moved to Paragould, AR,
and had Beth in the same year--she is an only child--and a pharmacist.
Leon and Gerry had credit bureaus in both Paragould and Jonesboro--he was active in the First
Baptist Church of Paragould.
Beth remembers her parents fondly and lovingly--she said they had great times riding
motorcycles and water skiing--and that Leon was a wonderful father.
This is about all I got from Beth, but she asked for my address and offered to send me more after
she had time to think about it.
I will send it along if she does send more.
. . .
Jeannie