Personal History by Paul Bert (Jack) Leonard, April, 1994

I was born of wonderful parents, Leopold and Zoe Ellen Powell Leonard, April 18, 1925, in the coal camp of Peerless, Utah. I was the eighth child of nine -- seven boys and two girls. As I started my earthly journey, I must say, it was something to think about!

About My Name

My first name and birth certificate read Ervin Bye Leonard. Then my parents had a change of heart and were given another birth certificate a short time later that read Paul Bert Leonard. Down the road a few short years, I came to be known as Jackie Leonard, so this gave me a few aliases to work with so, to end this, my social security registration reads Jackie Paul Leonard. How did I get the name "Jackie"? I was a child who did not like to stay home and help with the many chores that Mother had for us. This one Saturday, at an early age, I had taken off to go to the movie at the Star Theatre. At this time, Jackie Coogan was a popular star. Well, I was only five or six years old and, coming home over the railroad tracks on Carbon Avenue after all day at the movies, with my bib overalls and one strap undone, a shoe missing, I looked like a neglected child. The family was out looking for me. When they saw me walking down the street, they said I looked just like Jackie Coogan and so the name stuck. Some called me "Jack in the Box". I was rather small for my age and, when I was supposed to enter the first grade, they thought I was too small, so mother said: "Jackie, wait 'till you're seven years old. From then on, I decided to be as big as other kids and took the next path and that was to be the best I could be.

THE ETHNIC NEIGHBORHOOD

I was raised in a very pleasant ethnic neighborhood. The French families, the Italian and Greek families had a strong influence in my life. We all looked forward to Greek Easter, with the roasting of two or three lambs in their back yard, eating Greek cheese, pastries and the main course -- Greek dancing, music and their colorful dress. These years, with the variety of families in our neighborhood had a strong influence on me to appreciate all people and enjoy their life styles.

GROWING UP IN PRICE

Playing roughneck basketball by Uncle Abe's corral was very close to mayhem. During the summer of the late 1930's, a few of us would take a small herd of cows from the Pitts family. We would get ten cents a day to take them south of town for the day and herd them back at evening for milking. I tried my hand at thinning sugar beets between Price and Wellington. It paid ten cents a row. I am sure the rows were one half mile long and, after a few days, I decided this was not for me. I would sooner be home helping there. When growing up, I shined shoes with Rex, Don, Reid and Eben Powell, my cousins. It was a time when the depression had not quite ended. Rex Powell made me a shoe shine box, so I could be with them. We would shine shoes on Main Street and go into the Greek coffee houses. Shoe shines were ten cents. After making many rounds and earning enough for a Saturday matinee ticket of five cents, we would go to the Utah Cafe and order a large hamburger for ten cents, with a bowl of soup for ten cents and have enough left over for candy at the movie. At that time, there were Flash Gordon serials plus others that made you want to go each week. There were the original "Our Gang" comedies, Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, etc..

Memories, Anecdotes, and Reflections on my Father Leo P. Leonard

Recorded April 25, 1991 by Max G. Leonard, seventh child of Leo P. Leonard.

Leo P. Leonard was born October 28, 1882 in Kamas, Utah, the youngest of five children of George Bradford Leonard and Julia Hillock. He married Zoe Ellen Powell of Price, Utah in 1904. He died March 1963 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

This is not a short biography of my father because I have not been able to collect sufficient data on his long and eventful life to do it justice. What I have recorded here are a few of my most vivid memories and anecdotes and some reflections about his impact on my life over a period of approximately 37 years from 1926, when I was slightly over three years of age until March 1963 when he died.

One of my first recollections of my father was meeting him after work as he came off the Peerless Mine tipple, walking with him to the miner’s bathhouse where he bathed before going home and sitting on one of the benches used by miners to undress while he removed the coal dust and sweat from his body with the other miners working that shift. The odor of sweaty bodies mingled with steam and soap are still clearly etched in my memory. It seemed, however, that no amount of soap and water completely removed the coal dust that collected on my father’s and the miner’s eyelashes and eyebrows, and around the fingernails. This contrast of white faces against dark eyebrows and eyelashes made a distinct impression on a three year old; Our walk home from the bath house was always enjoyable because dad would hoist me up on his shoulders and I could sit there and ask him all kinds of questions about his job as a Tipple Foreman and Weigh Boss, which he always patiently answered.