Leota Crawford

Leota Crawford (1903-1987)

Three elderly women in vintage Victorian attire posing indoors with hats and accessories.

IN PROCESS

Birth, Parents & Siblings

Leota was born on July 31, 1903, in Madison, Indiana on the Ohio River. Her parents, James T. Crawford and Addie May Stockdale, were 49 and 34 years old, respectively, at the time. Leota was likely named for Addie May’s younger sister, Linnie Leota, who died at 19 years old.

Leota was the third of four children, including Dewey Lee (1898 – 1899), who died at less than a year old, William “Bill” (1900 – 1976) and Genevieve “Gen” (1906 – 1992).

Growing Up

She grew up in and around Madison, Indiana. Several homes: In the 1907 city directory, her family is listed as living at 113 W. Third Street, Madison Ward 3. [Trimble County Milling Company, Milton, Kentucky, C.G. Crawford, A. R. Crawford, makes the whitest of white bread, Christy Patent Four, And the Lightest of Light Bread?]. After that they lived at 711 West 3rd Street, 617 Jefferson (gone now) and 716 W. Second Street. All homes were just a few blocks from the Ohio River. She had a friend who lived in the Lanier Mansion and got to regularly play there possibly the DeMint family – Mona, had two daughters Catherine and Dorothy?

Attended Madison Consolidated High School and graduated in 1921. In the high school 1919 yearbook called the Mahisco, she is pictured and listed as a member of the class of 1921 and a member of the Girl’s Chorus. In a newspaper article, likely in 1921, identifying the post graduate plans of each student, Leota’s plan is listed as “Bookkeeper”, which was a common plan for many of her classmates, as well as those students planning on attending college at Indiana University, Hanover University, DePauw University and Purdue University. In the 192X city directory, she is listed as a bookkeeper for Sulzer Brothers, living at 715 W, 2nd Street. The Sulzer Brothers firm in Madison, Indiana in the early 1920s was a wholesale crude‑drug business operated by members of the prominent Sulzer family. The description “wholesale dealers in crude drugs” indicates that Sulzer Bros. operated in the pharmaceutical supply / apothecary raw‑materials trade, not as a retail drugstore. “Crude drugs” in early‑20th‑century terminology referred to botanical, mineral, and chemical raw materials used by pharmacists, physicians, and manufacturers.

We have yearbook photos and information about Leota.

Travelling around the Midwest with friends.

Marriage & Children

On Sunday July 22nd, 1928, Web married Leota Lee Crawford, of Madison, Indiana, in Indianapolis when she was approximately 25 years old and he was approximately 26 years old.

It is unclear when and how they met. She was from Madison, Indiana, but had already relocated with her family to Indianapolis at this time. Perhaps they met in Indianapolis or as Leota regularly travelled all over Indiana and the Midwest with her sister, brother and friends.

Photos from their honeymoon indicate that they travelled to Gettysburg, Philadelphia and Most Summit, Pennsylvania. In addition, they travelled to Mount Vernon, Virginia, Washington, DC and the Atlantic City, New Jersey Boardwalk.

According to the Indianapolis News, they returned to their home at 2035 North Meridian Street. Prior to being married, Leota lived at home with her parents at 3304 N. Capitol Avenue.

Web and Leota had one child, Robert Leon “Bob” Riordan, born on August 12th, 1932, in Indianapolis, Indiana, at Methodist Hospital, when he was 31 years old and she was 28 years old.

It is unclear why they did not have more children after Bob. Perhaps it was due to the combination of The Depression and Web’s failed business venture with Alemite (see below). Apparently, Web did not have a warm relationship with Bob. Bob suffered from asthma as a child for which Web had no sympathy. He was disrespectful to Bob about his condition. As a result, Bob was much closer to Leota than his dad for the rest of his life. In fact, Leota briefly joined the Christian Science Church to help cure Bob’s asthma, based on her sister, and brother in law’s experience trying to cure their daughter’s “blue baby” condition.

Adulthood

Dad died in 1933 at age 79 in Indianapolis.

Mom died in 1952 at age 84 in Indianapolis.

According to the1930 Census, Web and Leota were living in Indianapolis at West 36thStreet. He was listed as a salesman with an oil company, Alemite Lubricator Company, and Leota was listed as a stenographer in a law office.

In 1932, when Bob was born, they lived at 3326 N. Capitol Avenue, which was 4-5 doors down from Leota’s family’s home on the same street – the Crawfords. At that point, Web had already been working at Alemite for 10 years, according to Bob’s birth certificate.

The Alemite Company manufactured pneumatically powered grease guns during the 1930s. An Alemite gun was designed to inject hard or soft grease quickly into a machinery bearing. Regular greasing of such bearings was needed to prevent friction and bearing failure. The pneumatically operated gun required a special Alemite "fitting," designed to mate tightly with the business end of the gun, to be installed at every location where grease was to flow from the gun to an internal bearing surface.

The gun, and the fittings, provided a tremendous labor-saving improvement over previous methods of greasing critical internal bearings. In a locomotive roundhouse, a greasing crew of two men could lubricate all the rod bearings of a given locomotive in 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of the locomotive) instead of the hours required previously. A large steam locomotive, running in heavy duty on a railroad, required rod greasing approximately every 100 miles. Such greasing was usually done at a terminal, when a fresh load of fuel was put into the tender and other servicing performed on the locomotive.

According to the city directory of 1934, they were living in Indianapolis at 3431 Broadway Street, off 34th Street. Web is listed in the city directory as the Manager for the Alemite Sales Company. According to his wife, Leota, this association did not go well and that Web lost a lot of money because of his time with Alemite. According to his son Bob, Web owned 25% of Alemite, which eventually went bankrupt. They were bitter about this circumstance with Alemite for the rest of their lives.

According to Bob, they moved to Athens, Ohio in 1935, when Web took his first job with Chevrolet. They lived in a house that backed up to the Ohio University campus. Then in 1936, they moved to Flint, Michigan, when Web took the new role of District Manager for Chevrolet. By 1937, Web had taken another new role with Chevrolet as the District Manager for Traverse City, Michigan. Also relocating for this role.

By 1937 (1938 according to Bob), Web took on another new role with Chevrolet as a District Representative in Grand Rapids, Michigan, living at 850 Union Avenue according to the city directory.

According to Bob, in 1939, Web took yet another new role with Chevrolet as the District Manager for Bay City, Michigan, again relocating the family to 402 N. Catherine Street in Bay City.

According to the 1940 Census, Web changed locations with Chevrolet becoming a District Manager and moving to Traverse City, Michigan. This is different than Bob’s timeline – he has Traverse City from 1937-1938 before Grand Rapids.

According to Bonnie Elizabeth Dinsmore Riordan, Web’s daughter-in-law, a photo from May 19, 1941, a banquet for members of Business Management Training School in Detroit indicates that he was in a management role for Chevrolet at that time, one of his many positions over his career with Chevrolet.

It is unclear why Web made so many, frequent moves with Chevrolet.

At some point, Web became a Freemason, the secretive fraternal society. He achieved the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, as evidenced by a triangle with a 32 inside of it on his gravestone. It signifies a Mason who has completed the degrees from 4 to 32, focusing on advanced moral philosophy, leadership and ethical duty. According to Wikipedia, “by the time of the Civil War, U.S. freemasonry tripled its membership from 66,000 to 200,000 members in over 5,000 lodges nationwide.” Web would have joined after that “during the so-called ‘Golden Age of Fraternalism’ from approximately 1870 to 1920.”

Web’s draft registration card from 1941 when he was 40 years old states that he was living at 4401 College Avenue in Indianapolis, which is also his mom’s address according to the draft card. Perhaps he gave his mom’s address since he had already left Bay City but not yet secured a location in either Indianapolis or Chicago. It is perhaps notable that Aden senior’s final address was listed as 2458 College Avenue in 1931, which was three miles north of Web’s address.

According to Bob, later in 1942, Web moved to the Oakbrook suburb of Chicago to serve in the US Army Corp of Engineers, which was a military engineering organization within the War Department, as his initial contribution to war efforts. Initially, Leota and Bob then moved to Indianapolis to live with Leota’s sister, Gen, and brother-in-law, Lewie. They later moved up to Oakbrook to join Web.

During World War II, states and large metropolitan areas began establishing civil defense councils whose first job was to figure out where there communities were most vulnerable to enemy attacks or sabotage. In 1940 and 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established several civil defense organizations under the umbrella of the Office of Emergency Management. These organizations included the National War Emergency Service Program, the Office of Civilian Defense (including the Protective Services Division), The U.S. Citizens Defense Corp and the National Ware Emergency Service Program.

Web, who would have been in his 40s at the time, joined one or more of these organizations and served there for some part of the war period. There is a photo with a notation on the back that Web attended a training school in connection with National War Emergency Service Program in Cincinnati at the Netherland Plaza Hotel, October 18, 19, 20. At this time, he likely had already relocated to Cincinnati, per below.

By 1943, Web had returned to Chevrolet as the District Manager for Cincinnati, Ohio and again relocating the family, this time to the suburb of Norwood on the northeast side of Cincinnati. They lived in Cincinnati from 1943 to 1948.

Photographs show Web at the meetings of Chevrolet Parts Managers. In one he sits alone at the head table, indicating that he was in charge, perhaps. Those meetings were held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, likely in 1946 according to Microsoft Pilot research.

There are also photos of a Sales Managers’ Forum held in Detroit, July 12-21, 1948, indicating Web’s continuing advancement with Chevrolet.

In 1948, Web’s mother died in Louisville, Kentucky when he was 46 years old.

Also in 1948, Web moved to Dayton, Ohio to take a job directly with a dealership, called SWS, located downtown off Main Street and 1st Street. From the 1920s through the 1950s, the blocks around Main Street, First Street, Second Street, and Ludlow formed Dayton’s “auto row,” with multiple dealerships, garages, and service centers. Due to consolidation, SWS became Ray Bryant Chevrolet from 1960 – 1969, which then became part of White Allen Chevrolet after that. Notably, the daughter of the owner of Ray Bryant Chevrolet became a neighbor and good friends with Bob’s wife, Bonnie. The original location/building of SWS no longer exists. Web worked for this dealership until his retirement. His retirement date is currently unknown.

When Web took the role with SWS, the family relocated to the Dayton suburb of Oakwood to a home on Shroyer Road. They soon relocated to a home in Kettering at 310 Orchard Drive, where they lived for many years. According to Bonnie Elizabeth Dinsmore Riordan, Web loved roses – he groomed them in a rose garden in the backyard of their home.

According to the 1959 City Directory, Web is listed as a salesman for George Huffman Real Estate, perhaps as another job alongside his automotive sales job.

In the mid to late 1960s, Web’s health began to fail stemming from emphysema and memory issues. Eventually, he was no longer able to work and support the family. Therefore, Leota had to go back to work, securing a position with Montgomery County Engineering, working for a friend of Bob’s, Gene Cronk. At that point, too, Leota revealed that her age on her driver’s license was younger than her true age by three years (it was likely 1968). She was already 65 and eligible for Social Security. Steve Riordan recalled a memory of Web taking his car downtown and returning by bus because he could not remember where he parked it. Bob had to go back with him to find his car and bring it back. At some point during this time Web and Leota relocated to 530 Lamont Drive, apartment 3.

According to Bonnie: “As a grandfather and father-in-law in the 1960s he was observant, yet quiet, glad to be with his family at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Always ready his quiet but endearing “hWell-uh” when asked for a response or an opinion, quietly offering, never pushing his philosophy, just responding to a perceived need. He had dementia in his last days but never seemed unhappy or distressed that I saw. Always kind and appreciative of his daughter-in-law.”

Eventually, Web had to be moved out of the apartment and into a center that could provide him with help that could no longer be provided at home. The last place he lived was the Dayton Mental Health Center, 2335 Wayne Avenue, 45420.

Death

Leota died on December 14, 1987, in Dayton, Ohio. She died from complications

She is buried in David’s Cemetery in Kettering, Ohio in the same cemetery as her husband, whom she survived by 16 years.

Riordan-Durant Family Tree

Connecting Generations, Sharing Stories

Leota Crawford (1903-1987)

Capturing Memories: An Ancestral Photo Album

Riordan-Durant Family Tree

Connecting Generations, Sharing Stories

Leota Crawford (1903-1987)

Capturing Memories: An Ancestral Photo Album

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