1935 (t) Thomas Leigh Keeline (90)

[taylo...@comcast.net]

1935 (t) Thomas Leigh Keeline (90)

Roseberg News Review, OR Jan 4, 2007 (scanned)

KEELINE, Thomas "Leigh" " Age 90, passed away peacefully, on Friday, December 29, 2006 in Roseburg, Oregon. Leigh was born on October 8, 1916, to the late Phillip and Eliza Keeline in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from High School, he spent four years with a sheep-shearing crew, traveling from Southern California to the Canadian border every year. This was one of the more lucrative jobs a man could find during the Great Depression, but backbreaking work. While on one of these journeys, he met his wife to be, Leone Stuff, a Montana girl. They were married in Pacific Grove, California, in 1939. They then lived in San Jose, California, for 10 years, where their daughter, Kitty, was born. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Leigh worked as a construction machinist and millwright in the Santa Clara Valley and surrounding area. In 1953, he built a home, from foundation to roof with his own hands, in Saratoga, California, where they lived until 1983. Leigh worked as Financial Secretary of Carpenters Union 1280, in Mountain View, California, for about 20 years, before retiring and moving to Roseburg, Oregon, in 1984. He was a member of the Methodist Church in Los Gatos, California, and the First United Methodist Church in Roseburg. He was also a member of the VFW. Leigh dedicated his life to a better the wages and living conditions of the working man and woman. He strongly believed every person had the right to earn a decent living for honest work, no matter what it might be. He loved gardening and landscaping and was always designing or "re-doing" something inside or outside of the house. When he was 86, Leone found him "fixing"something on the roof of their 2-story house. The family nicknames him "Our Fiddler on the Roof." Leigh is preceded in death by his parents, Phillip and Eliza Keeline; three sisters, Eileen Andrews, Tim Sherman and Patricia Sandman. Also an infant son, Phillip Leigh. He is survived by his wife, Leone, and daughter, Kitty, of Roseburg, Oregon, grandson Terry Krebs of Tigard, Oregon, grandson Ray Krebs and his wife, Heidi, of Portland, Oregon, and granddaughter Pandora Snyder and her husband, Chris, of Tucson, Arizona: four great-grandchildren, Tyson Krebs of Redmond, Oregon, Tana Krebs of Portland, Oregon, Artie Cosenza and Kalub Snyder of Tucson, Arizona. He is also survived by a niece, Betty Sherman of Stockton, California, a nephew, Karl Byers of Springfield, Oregon, and numerous great-nieces and great-nephews. God has blessed all his family by having Leigh with them for many wonderful years. Private services will be held by his family in Yachats, Oregon, where they enjoyed many happy times together. In lieu of flowers, those who wish, may donate to Alzheimer's Association in Leigh's memory.

Thomas L. Keeline Last Residence: 97470 Roseburg, Douglas, Oregon Born: 8 Oct 1916 Died: 29 Dec 2006 State (Year) SSN issued: California (Before 1951)