http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20090330/NEWS01/903300308
Veterans: Bellville man’s war memories include rockets, castles
By RON SIMON • News Journal • March 30, 2009
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BELLVILLE — For Leonard “Gene” Leedy, 86, service during World War II was more like a European travel tour than a war.
A 1940 graduate of Bellville High School, Leedy prizes a photo of the school’s football team.
“That’s me,” he said, pointing to one of the young players in the picture. “We had a pretty darn good team that year. Now there are only three of us in that picture left.”
After graduation, Leedy, who was dating Geraldine Clever, Bellville’s 1939 homecoming queen, went to work at the Tappan plant in Mansfield.
All that changed when he was drafted in early 1943.
Not long after completing basic training, Pvt. Leedy was transferred to Manhattan College in New York City to take the Army’s specialist training program.
“I think I did pretty well in the tests the Army gave me,” he said.
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Within a few months he and Geraldine Clever were married. The couple, together now for more than 60 years, had two children, Steve of Bellville and Becky Leedy Szymansky of Medina. Both are retired school teachers. There are six grandchildren, Leedy said.
Leedy retired after putting in 44 years at Tappan. He and Geraldine live in the hills above Bellville.
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[JR: Here's a neat MC connection. I don't understand what was done in those days.]
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