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ALFRED LEONARD TALLIS |
Born: January 5th 1907. Died: March 4th 1988.
Married on December 23rd 1934 at Watkins Glen, New York, USA.
AMIE BUDD COLE
Born: October 6th 1906.
Died: March 16th 1999.
Children from marriage
Leon & Amie lived and worked in Rochester, NY
until six months after Joan's birth when they moved to Scio
street in Elmira, NY in early 1938. Shortly they moved to
84, York Avenue living there for the next ten years.
After Grandpa Ira died the family moved in the summer of
1948 to the Fifth Street house in Watkins Glen to live with
Grandma Fanny. In 1954 with the completion of a new ranch
home on N.Glen avenue and after a summer of living on Fourth
street above a laundromat, the family moved up on the hill
overlooking Seneca Lake. After Leon retired from NCR he and
Amie moved in 1972 to Crystal River, FL, and stayed for 16
years until Leon's death. Amie moved in 1988 to an a apartment
in Temple Terrace, Fl near Joan until her death March 16th 1998.
Photo 1931. Leon was born January 5th, 1907 in Preston Bagot,
Warwickshire, England. He emigrated to Canada in May 1925
and worked on a wheat farm in Saskatchewan for two years,
went two years to the University of Toronto, lost his savings in the
market crash, then moved to the USA, Elmira NY.
He enrolled in National Cash Register Company's school in Dayton,
Ohio, 1929-1931 returning to work in Elmira. He transferred to
Rochester, NY after meeting Amie. Seven years later he
transferred back to Elmira with the family.
Leon as he was called joined the US Navy in 1944.
Assigned primarily to supply ships he participated in the
Battle of the Bulge December 16th 1944. He was honorably
discharged on January 7th 1946.
Leon worked for the National Cash Register Co, for forty years,
(two years out for military service), from Sept 16th, 1929 to his
retirement in January 1972. He did machine repair work at first
working up to service manager positions. Leon had artistic talent
and excelled as a handyman and builder of things. Golf was his leisure
sport. He enjoyed retirement life in Crystal River, Fl for 16 years until
his death March 4th, 1988.
Photo 1938 , 84 York Avenue, Elmira, New York
Photo from 1941, Pat aged 1 and Joan aged 5
Grandma Mansfield, Doris, Bill and Leonard 1927.
Amie was born October 6th, 1906. She met Leon on a blind date in
Elmira, NY in 1931. She was a secretary to the president of the Kurlash
Company in Rochester, NY. After marriage to Leon on December 23rd
1934, she managed the home and raised their two girls. Amie played
the piano for pleasure, golf for exercise and social connection, and
read voraciously her entire life.
A Tale of Leon as told to daughter Joan by his wife Amie one day
in July, 1998.
When brothers Jack & Walter left home in 1920, Leon became the eldest son
at Rose Cottage for the next five years. The story goes that one night after he'd
reached age 17, he locked up the cottage and prepared to go to bed. His Father
Harry, had been out and returning home tried to get in. Apparently drunk he
started an altercation with Leon challenging his right to lock him out.
Leon retorted that he was the man of the house and had every right.
Somehow in the confrontation, Leon knocked his Father down. One version
claims that Barbara came down from upstairs carrying a gun. Nothing more is
known about that. This episode spurred Maud to decide that it was time
for Leon to leave home and it is believed that she made a connection through
her birth relatives, the Gregory family, for Leon to go to Saskatchewan, Canada,
to work in the wheat fields.
On or about May 4th,1925 at age 18, he boarded the SS Athena out of London
and sailed for Canada. He never saw either of his parents, his brother Walter,
nor his brothers and sisters who remained in England again.
He may have corresponded with his mother and his far away siblings in the
early years, but he relied primarily on his sister Doris for information about
his Family.