John Raymond Leffler was born on 3 March 1897 in Polk County Nebraska, near the town of Osceola. His father’s name was Alvin Leffler (Alvin Leffler collected clocks) and his mother’s maiden name was Ida Ann Lewis. (When Ida was older she had arthritis so bad that every finger curled up) He had an older brother, Edward, a younger brother, Charles, and a younger sister, Mabel. Charles and John were nicknamed “Mutt and Jeff”, after characters in a popular cartoon strip. The family moved to Colorado in 1908 and homesteaded on a farm near Hereford. Every summer the family used to go back to Nebraska in a covered wagon to harvest corn.
When John was a boy he constructed a homemade bicycle using a wooden frame and cultivator wheels. There were no brakes or steering and the rider laid across the frame headfirst. For the trial run he started at the top of a hill in the pasture where some draft animals were grazing. The ride ended between the hind legs of one of the animals and John remembers “coming to” the next day. He didn’t say whether he ever rode the bicycle again. In another incident he was climbing a tree and fell, catching his ankle in the fork of a branch. He hung upside down until discovered by his brother Mutt some hours later. Yet another time his foot went down into a narrow post hole, trapping him until help arrived.
Regular school attendance was difficult because of farm work. At school, John was forced to learn to write with his right hand. Naturally left-handed, he writes with his right hand to this day. He completed school through the eighth grade. It took two years to finish the eighth grade because of farm work.
Before marrying his eventual bride, Lora Curtis, she went to a dance with another boy who had a carriage. Later in the evening when her date became intoxicated, John had to rescue her. Another time the couple went to a dance in the next county and became stranded when the car broke down. They were unable to return home until the next day and spent the night in a farmhouse.
Lora’s parents did not approve of John, so the couple were married secretly on December 24th, 1917. Lora returned to her parents’ home after the ceremony. They found out by reading the marriage announcement in the newspaper, and only then allowed the two to live together. (My mom said that Grandma’s mother was a “little dictator”)
John enlisted in the army in 1917 and served in Denver. He never saw service overseas. Lora lived in Denver with him.
After the war the two settled on a farm near Hereford, where their four children were born. They raised beans, corn, barley, wheat and rye. The farm was not profitable so he sold it and auctioned off the farm equipment. The family left on May 18th, 1939, with a truck full of possessions, four children and $300.
When my mom was 2 years old her dad ran her over with a car. He came home from somewhere, parked the car and left it. My mom (Wanda) sat in front of the car, playing with rocks. Her dad came back to put the car in the barn and ran over her. Mom witnessed it from the window. I think he just knocked her over with the car and then drove over the top of her. She wasn’t hurt.
They stayed with Lora’s parents in Caldwell, Idaho for a few weeks and then moved to Ontario, Oregon. John ran a garage which he rented in Cairo Junction. He repaired farm equipment, welded and did some blacksmithing. The garage was not profitable because he would do work whether the customer could pay or not and often never collected.
John left Oregon after WW II broke out and came to Tacoma. He opened a gas station and/or garage in Nalley Valley. The family lived in a house on G Street, but moved to Salishan some time during the war. He soon gave up on the station and got a job as a welder at the shipyard. After the war he ran another garage in Salishan for a time and then got a job with the Tacoma Public Schools. He bought a two acre farm in Fife and at various times raised beans and rabbits. He worked with Ken at the shipyards and later, after school was out, Lora, Jim and Wanda joined them in Tacoma. Lora also worked in the shipyards during the war. He was laid off from the shipyards after the war was over. That’s when he bought the gas station (in Nalley Valley?) which he later sold, then bought a garage in the area of Portland and/or Puyallup Avenue. He did mechanical work but did too much work on credit and went broke. He was forced to retire from Tacoma Public Schools when he was 65. He didn’t want to retire and was unhappy about it.
After retiring from the school system, John worked as a contract carpenter, building garages and remodeling. He has built or helped to build a house for each of his four children. He was a charter member of the South Lakeshore Christian Church, and had a large part in the construction of both the original church building and a later classroom building. He remodeled an old house which was donated to the church and moved onto the property, for use as a parsonage. When the minister chose to live in another house nearby, John and Lora moved into the house and he acted as a caretaker and handyman for several years without pay.
John Raymond Leffler passed from this life on January 9, 1993. He was 95 years young. John will be remembered by many at SLCC for his dedicated service, for his sense of humor, love, hugs at the door, and even his stubbornness. He was a “jack of all trades” and left his footprints on the church grounds and in many people’s hearts. May we who are left, carry on in the legacy of John Raymond Leffler. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord…they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.” (Rev. 14:13)
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