This is the story of Leon Nelson Harris, Sylvia’s father.  Leon was born September 7 or 8, 1917 in the family home south of St Johns, Michigan.  The date is uncertain, because the time is uncertain — was he born before or after midnight?  We don’t know.  In the rush and excitement, nobody thought to look at the clock.

Leon & Elouise in 1934

We love to hear how he met, and later married, the lovely and charming young lady, Elouise Irving.  In his own words, “I was a small second grader when a big shiny auto pulled into the school yard and out hopped a most beautiful gal. It was Elouise Irving and we had an instant mutual attraction. During high school we dated.”

Elouise and Leon in 1935

As a youngster, he used to walk to school on his hands.  It got him a lot of attention.  He worked in restaurants, ran a gas station, had a mail route (Star route — independent contractors hauled the US mail in some places back then.)  Later he worked in the sign business.  One of his jobs was selling musical instruments.  He learned how to get music out of just about any instrument you want to name.  However, his favorite was, and still is, the accordion.

Leon, Elouise (1945) Karen, Sylvia, Joyce

Here’s part of his story as he told it in 2005: “I left my parent’s home in 1935 and went to Detroit, staying at my brother Gerald’s place in Melvindale, where I worked in a restaurant.  Later I got work with Animated Advertising Co.  We did the annual new model auto sales promotion for both Ford and General Motors.  Elouise was working in a nearby beauty shop and we were married in 1939.  I was paid $20 a week.  Our three room apartment was $25 per month.  I paid $50 for a 1937 Plymouth.  New cars sold for five to seven hundred dollars (the used ones soon needed costly repairs).  One Christmas fire destroyed our farm implement business building with my car inside.  That night on the way to Christmas with the Irving family, I drove into a patch of smoke and fog and drove into the back of a truck.  We were able to continue in my borrowed car.  I was not badly upset and had a feeling that better times would soon be at hand.  It turned out that this led to the purchase of a gas station and a booming after-war business.”

Elouise suffered a stroke in 2001 and passed away.  At 94 years of age, Dad still lives alone in the house his father-in-law built.  It is just around the corner from where he was born.  We are glad that he is still with us and is active in church and family activities.

September 2011

It doesn’t show in these photos, but Leon used to have bright red hair.