Story County IA Archives Biographies.....Wills, John Leslie July 5, 1905 - June 6, 1988 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ia/iafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Helen Lehman hawlehman@cox.net December 28, 2010, 5:27 pm Source: Personal knowledge plus records indicated Author: Helen A. (Wills) Lehman This is my father. *Per Helen A. (Wills) Lehman "Dad was Baptised and Endowed and Sealed to his family, as well as his parents and sisters, in the Logan, Utah Temple. He did this with us while he was living. My Father was a hard working, diligent, honest and determined man. He could spin a fun song in rhyme, making up his own words to make us all laugh. He had a big heart for doing good for others in need. Dad was an extremely intellegent man. Bordering on pure genius. He was well read and he mostly loved the subjects of History and Political Science and studied them with a passion. Sometimes he would get so intense with his feelings especially in the area of political science that he would explode with anger when the views of the current governmental administration did not co-inside with the way he felt they should. When this would occure, we all knew the safest place to be was a long way away from where he was standing because we knew that the pots and pans would start to fly as he threw them against the walls in anger. He loved to share his thoughts on various subjects, until we were all weary of listing to him review over and over stories we knew often by heart. He was indeed a long winded talker. He also had a very stubborn streak, that could leave us all shaking in our boots. He was quite a character and an individual few who met him would ever forget. I loved him a lot (though I sometimes feared him). My Father's temper was his major fault and often caused a lot of emotional problems for his wife and children. He was from the 'old school' where harsh physcial discipline was the norm. Having a bad temper did not make these events easy to endure." * Dad appeared in a vision to my daughter Melissa when she was 16-17yrs. old, and appologized to us all. He told her to tell me and my siblings that he was "sorry and that he was working on it." Birth from Iowa State Board of Health Certificate of Birth number 189, registered No. 26. Age 4 in 1910 US Census for Cambridge, Union Township, Story, Iowa Age 14 in 1920 US Census for ED # 151, Smoky Hill, Saline, Kansas Entered the US Army on 3 Jun 1942 at Tacoma, Pierce, Washington. Served to the end of WWII at Camp Roberts, California in the Supply Branch. Height 63 inches, weight 141 pounds. From US World War II Army Enlistment Records 1938 to 1946. Ended war with rank of Tec 5 Sgt. Buried in Dayton National Cemetery, Ohio section 20, site 340. Baptized by Elder Birtrand B. Withee and confirmed by Elder H. G. Jarman. Certificate in files. Ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood by Roland C. Wills in the Kelso Longview Ward on 6 June 1954. Ordained a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood by Willard A Call in the Kelso Longview Ward on 14 November 1954. Ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood by Jasper Dickson in the Lorin Farr Ward on 25 September 1955. Ordained an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood by Lawrrence D. Olpin (our Lorin Farr Stake President) on 26 May 1957. John Leslie Wills (*He often went by the name of Leslie or Les) was born on the family farm in Cambridge, Story County, Iowa. By the time he was in his twenties, he lived in Salina, Kansas with his father John Mitchell and his mother Lulu. His father John Mitchell was working for the gas company and they owned a small lot that they also farmed. Due to the depression and dust bowl conditions in Kansas in the 1930's they lost the farm/home by about 1935 and moved to Washington where John Leslie's sister Elva and her husband Ernie Sharer lived (Kelso, Cowlitz County, Washington). Leslie and his parents bought a place up Cold Creek Canyon west of Longview and built a home. They lived in this home until 1954. (John Michell moved to Kelso to live with Elva in 1946). John Leslie met Pearl at the Longview Post Office (where he worked before WWII) while on leave from Camp Roberts, California. He spent all of WWII at Camp Roberts. They married after knowing each other less than 4 days. They lived in Bradley, California until the war ended then moved back to the home up Cold Creek Canyon. Leslie and Pearl joined the LDS church in 1954 while living Longview, Washington. In 1954 John Leslie sold the Cold Creek property to Margaret Vandervort Kunkle (Pearl's Aunt) and moved his family to Ogden, Utah. The family lived in Ogden from the fall of 1954 until November 1965 when John Leslie and his wife Pearl and two of their sons, Jim and Lynn moved to Phoenix, Arizona due to a job transfer taken due to mom's ill health (a dryer climate was the hope to ease her severe asthma). Their oldest daughter Mical was married by then to Norman Walker and their daughter Helen stayed with Mical and Norman until she finished her Senior year in high school, she then too moved to Phoenix. Jon Richard, their oldest son had joined the Marines and was living on a military base in California. John Leslie Wills and his wife Pearl lived in Phoenix until 1973. With all the five kids grown and on their own by then they felt free to move again and they headed to the Pacific Northwest to a small town on the sea named Bandon in the State of Oregon. They lived in Bandon until 1984 when Pearl developed serious medical problems that made it necessary for them to move in with their son Patrick in Slidell, Louisiana. Leslie and Pearl lived with Lynn and his wife Michalene in Slidell, Louisiana until the Summer of 1985. Les then moved to Ohio where he was admitted to the Veterans Administration hospital in south central Ohio in the town of Chillicothe. Pearl purchased a mobile home in Paris, Champaign County, Ohio. Les then moved from the Veterans Hospital to a nursing care facility in Sidney, Ohio as he was then 83 and in ill health. Pearl's health was failing as well, though she was only 64. The nursing facility was close enough by for Pearl to visit when her health was strong enough to do so. John Leslie Wills died while a patient at the VA Hospital in Dayton, Ohio shortly after his wife, Pearl died of Congestive Heart failure in 1988. Pearl died 10 March 1988 and Leslie 6 June 1988. They both are buried in the same grave in the Veterans Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio. *Address: Veterans National Cemetery 4100 West 3rd Street, Dayton, Ohio 45428 Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ia/story/photos/bios/wills390gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ia/story/bios/wills390gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/iafiles/ File size: 7.0 Kb