Before businesses and homes filled up the Kent Valley, Leonard Levack remembers bird hunting with his brothers in the 1930s and \u201940s.<\/p>\n
\u201cDucks and pheasants were plentiful then,\u201d Levack said during an interview at the Kent Historical Museum. \u201cMy brother one season got 250 ducks in the valley here. My mom cooked them for dinner. We put them in cold storage and had duck in the winter and spring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Levack, along with four of his brothers and two sisters, will be honored at the 21st annual Kent Old Timers Greater Kent Community Reunion Aug. 15 because of the family\u2019s long history in the Kent area. The free event is open to the public.<\/p>\n
At 81, Leonard, of Des Moines, is the youngest of the sons and daughters of Edward and Carolyn Levack. Brothers Bob, 88; Ted, 87; Roy, 83; and sisters Logia Hardin, 93 and Billie Holt, 90, will join Leonard at the event. Eddie, the oldest brother, and Hilda Johnson, the oldest, sister have died.<\/p>\n
Bob and Ray live in Kent, Ted in Normandy Park and Roy in Renton. Logia lives in Burlington and Billie in Enumclaw.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to say it\u2019s good, clean living,\u201d Leonard said about the key to the Levack\u2019s long lives. \u201cLongevity is in the family. Our genes are wired that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of the Levack brothers graduated from Kent High School, with Leonard a 1947 graduate. Their father, Edward worked as a milk truck driver to support his large family. He lived to be 82. Their mother, Carolyn Levack, lived to be 94.<\/p>\n
John Mergens, chairman of the Kent Old Timers Greater Kent Community Reunion, said one of the Levack brothers had been brought up last year as a nominee by the selection committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought about it and figured we couldn\u2019t honor just one brother and then they were brought up again this year,\u201d Mergens said.<\/p>\n
Kathleen Levack, the wife of Leonard for 56 years, will introduce the brothers and sisters at the reunion in a 2 p.m. presentation. She told Mergens about the two sisters so they could be added to the program along with their brothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s history and the people who made Kent what it is today,\u201d Mergens said about the honorees over the last 20 years. \u201cThey were merchants or had farms and most went to Kent schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also have to be at least 80 years old.<\/p>\n
Leonard Levack looks forward to being honored.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s great,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know we had an impact in the community but living here most of our lives we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard Levack, who was born in Auburn, started work at age 12 making hay in the Kent Valley. He was paid 50 cents per hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like pennies from heaven,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He later worked at Libby\u2019s Cannery and Kent Cold Storage, two businesses long gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cLibby\u2019s is gone, there was a furniture store that I can\u2019t think of the name of that\u2019s gone and the White Spot Tavern is gone,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there were a lot of dairy and produce farms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the changes, Levack still enjoys the Kent Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith progress, overall I think we are better off,\u201d he said. \u201cI hate that old things disappear, but that\u2019s the way it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard Levack worked 34 years as a Boeing buyer before he retired in 1991. Brother Roy also worked at Boeing; Ray spent 58 years in the feed business with stores in Kent and Auburn; Ted worked as a milkman for the Smith Brothers Dairy in Kent; and Bob worked at a paper plant in Seattle.<\/p>\n
With five children and six grandchildren of his own, Leonard Levack expects as many as 30 relatives to turn out for the Kent reunion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve alerted all of them,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I will have to call (brother) Bob to make sure he is up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the Levack relatives gather once a month for breakfast at a Denny\u2019s in Federal Way. Leonard, Ted, Roy, Ray and their spouses also gather each Sunday at one of their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have Sunday dinner and play cards until midnight,\u201d Leonard Levack said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Other honorees: The other honorees at the reunion include Anna (Schuurman) Mulder, who grew up in Kent and helped her husband Nicholas Mulder raise Holstein dairy cows on the East Hill; and Elinor (Johnson) Osness, who grew up on Taylor Road (now South 228th Street), married Ralph Johnson and worked at the Kent Post Office.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
WHAT: Kent Old Timers 21st annual reunion<\/p>\n
WHEN: 1-4 p.m. Aug. 15<\/p>\n
WHERE: Kent Senior Activity Center, 600 E. Smith St.<\/p>\n
COST: Free<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before businesses and homes filled up the Kent Valley, Leonard Levack remembers bird hunting with his brothers in the 1930s and \u201940s.
\n\u201cDucks and pheasants were plentiful then,\u201d Levack said during an interview at the Kent Historical Museum. \u201cMy brother one season got 250 ducks in the valley here. My mom cooked them for dinner. We put them in cold storage and had duck in the winter and spring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":11719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11718"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}