Ex-equipment operator for Paulding loved horses
10/28/2001PAULDING - LeRoy Lester Manley, an equipment operator for the village of Paulding for 19 years, died of lung cancer Thursday in his son's home in Defiance. He was 84.
Mr. Manley of Paulding lived in the area all his life. Before his job with the village, he worked at the German-American Sugar Beet factory there. He later worked for the Luntz Iron & Steel Co., where he oversaw the dismantling of the sugar beet factory.
As equipment operator for the village, Mr. Manley drove trucks and backhoes on maintenance projects, such as waterline repairs.
“When he worked for the city, just about everybody around town knew him,” his son, Harry, said.
Mr. Manley married Irene Burris in 1939. She died in 1980. Mr. Manley, father of seven, was a quiet man who cared for his family.
“He was a family man. He always had a job and worked hard to put food on the table,” his son said.
Mr. Manley enjoyed hunting, and he was a “horse enthusiast,” his son said. He liked to ride horses at county fairs, and he raced thoroughbred horses at racetracks in Cleveland and Cincinnati.
He was a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 2405 in Paulding.
Surviving are his sons, Harry, Rex, John, Larry, and Donald; daughter, Judy Keys; brothers, Harry and Norman; sisters, June Horney and LaDonna Geyer, 14 grandchildren, and 29 great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Den Herder Funeral Home, Paulding, where the body will be after 2 p.m. tomorrow.
The family requests tributes to Paulding County Hospital Home Health Care.