Leon Michael Padell

  General Notes:

Leon grew up on the family farm in East Granby Connecticut. He told me that they didn't have electricity until the late 30's nor central heat. He had the room at the top of the stairs looking out the front of the house. Usually in the winter they had a really thick quilt. They caught the school bus in front of the farmhouse. After High School he went to New York to work.

The farm did not have central heating when he and his brothers and sisters were growing up. There was a wood burning stove in the kitchen that would radiate heat. His mother Julia would make quilts and comforters out of chicken and duck feathers, usually about 6 inches thick. These would keep everyone warm, but on the frosty winter mornings they still had to get up out of the warm beds, especially since the outhouse was out behind the barn!
There was a two room school house, what is now the Library in East Granby where all the students were separated into two groups, younger and older. When it was time to move on to High School, they would go by bus to Simsbury High School.
One winter, when there was a large snowfall, the 3 boys dug tunnels through out the farmyard. The snow had a fairly hard crust on the surface and Pa was walking back from the barn to the house. Suddenley he broke through the snow, collapsing the tunnel and falling in, he didn't hurt himself, but he really got mad.


When World War II broke out he joined the Marines. After boot camp he went to Camp Lejeune in Calif. The 4th Marine Division then staged out of Maui in Hawaii. He participated in the battles of Saipan, Roi Namur, and Iwo Jima. He was wounded twice but as they were only scratches he refused a Purple Heart.

After the war he attended Boston University. He worked for Burroughs Corp in the Bank Sales division. He then went on to start several businesses, including Automatic Payroll Service and Legal Data Systems. He owned Filterfresh of Tampa, an office coffee machine business from 1990 until 2005.

Leon had a stroke in Nov 2006 and spent his last days in a nursing home in Pinalles County Florida.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Pets: Collie named Nickie /, Between 1930 and 1940.

• Education, 1942, Boston University - Business / Boston, , Massachusetts.

• Military, Between 1942 and 1945, 4th Marine Division 24 Reg 2ND Bat /.

• Military, Between 1942 and 1945, Fought At Iwo Jima, Saipan, Tinian, Roi Namur /.

• Military, Between 1942 and 1945, United States Marine Corps /.

• Military, 1954, Air Force Reserves Lieutenant, Korean War /.

• Cremation, Sep 18, 2007, Tampa, Hillsborough, Florida.

• Cemetery: St Joseph Cemetery, Jun 21, 2008, West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Leon was cremated and it was almost a year before he was buried

Leon married Naomi Ruth Schleicher, daughter of Clayton Peters Schleicher and Estella Alberta Wehr, on Oct 11, 1952 in Alsace Lutheran Church, Reading Pennsylvania. (Naomi Ruth Schleicher was born on Jun 5, 1927 in Tamaqua / West Penn Twp, Schuylkill Co, Pennsylvania and died on May 23, 2009 in Northbourgh, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.)