Leonard
Dawson
Leonard F. Dawson, 90, of Grand Island, died Monday – January 22, 2007 at St. Francis Medical Center.
Services
will be 10:30 a.m. Friday in the Gollaher Chapel of Trinity United Methodist
Church in Grand Island, Nebraska. The Reverend Del Roper will officiate.
Burial will be in the Grand Island Cemetery. The United Veteran’s
Honor Guard will provide military honors.
Visitation will be from 3-7 p.m. Thursday at All Faiths Funeral Home in Grand Island, Nebraska.
Leonard was born May 15, 1916 at Woodsen County, Kansas the son of Benjamin and Mary (Kretsinger) Dawson. He was raised on a family farm between Toronto and Yates Center, Kansas. He attended rural country school and graduated from Toronto High School in 1933. Leonard attended Pittsburgh Kansas State College for 2 years earning his Lifetime Teaching Certificate in 1936. He taught for four years while helping his father on the farm. He served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1941 to 1945. He then served in the Army Reserves until 1955. He then attended Kansas State University of Manhattan receiving his degree in Agriculture in 1949. He was united in marriage to Elva Currence on June 3, 1951 at Manhattan, Kansas. They moved to Grand Island, Nebraska in 1951. Leonard was a traveling sales representative selling farm and truck equipment for 33 years. Following his retirement he spent 2 summers working for the Forrest Service in Wyoming. He spent 11 years working a small acreage near Grand Island. He has been a backyard gardener since. He joined the Masons in 1937, the Woodsen Lodge in Toronto, Kansas receiving his 32 nd degree in 1970 and joined the Tehama Shrine the same year. He was a member of the Central Nebraska Shrine Club and the Central Nebraska Motor Patrol. He was also a member of the American Legion.
Those left to cherish his memory are his wife Elva, son and daughter-in-law Larry and Jill Dawson of Missoula, Montana, two daughters Mary Dawson Hall of Pleasant Hill, CA, Carla Coleen Schurman of Pennsauken, New Jersey, a sister Mildred Alfrey of Tallahassee, Florida, grandchildren Carrie, Elizabeth, Alexander and Kenneth and great grandchildren John and Catherine.
His parents, a brother and two sisters preceded him in death.
Memorials are suggested to the Shrine Hospital for Children or donor’s choice.