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Services
Friends may visit with the family from 3-7 PM on Monday, April 13, 2015 at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne.
Funeral services will be held 9:00 AM on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 from the Funeral Home then to Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, 580 Ratzer Road, Wayne (directly across the street from the funeral home) where a 10:00 AM Funeral Mass will be offered.
Interment will be in Saint Gertrude Cemetery, 53 Inman Ave, Colonia, NJ 07067.
Leonard T. Parsons, age 93, of Wayne, formerly Linden, passed Friday, April 10, 2015.
He was born and raised in Elizabeth and attended Elizabeth High School with the Class of 1939. The United States involvement in WWII, and the accompanying surge of patriotism, had young Leonard enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. He enlisted on August 11, 1942 in New York City and was a proud Marine for the rest of his life. Leonard served in the Pacific Theatre of the war and was engaged in the capture and defense of Bougainville, participated in the consolidation of the Solomon Islands, and the capture and occupation of Guam. He was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received on July 25, 1944 in the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre of the war. He was shot, had shrapnel in his leg, and came down with a terrible case of Malaria. He was honorably discharge on October 15, 1945. He was a member of the American Legion Post 102 in Linden and a Life Member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart organization. His wife Minnie is quoted as saying: “His heart never left the Marine Corps.”
After his service in WWII Leonard worked as a machine operator for the Simmons Mattress Copany in Elizabeth and later as a roaster operator and freeze drier for the Tenco Corporation’s coffee plant in Linden where he worked for thirty-eight years before retiring in 1986.
Many years ago Leonard would ride his bicycle around the neighborhood in a constant search for a cute girl named Minnie Venezio. According to Minnie she considered Leonard to be a pest. Minnie’s friends told her she couldn’t get that guy…he was too cute. Again she thought he was a pain in the neck and she couldn’t get rid of him. Their relationship progressed from Leonard throwing rocks at her window and having Minnie’s mother yell out “go home Leonard – leave her alone and don’t come back,” to falling in love during a courtship of just taking walks around the neighborhood. Leonard proposed, just before Minnie’s strict 10 PM curfew, on the front steps of her house at 2110 San Caroline Avenue in Linden. They married at Saint Anthony’s RC Church in Elizabeth on Thanksgiving Day – November 22, 1945. The wedding was delayed as all forgot about getting Leonard’s mother to the church and she was stranded at home. Minnie also remembers Leonard’s father admonishing her: “make sure you take good care of my son.” They honeymooned in New York City and went to see Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theatre. Leonard and Minnie have enjoyed seventy years of a loving, caring, and devoted marriage.
Leonard will be remembered as loving to go hunting, and fishing trips to the beach and pier in Long Branch. He also had a love of cars. At first it was Buick’s and later it was Lincoln’s. The bigger the car and the bigger the engine the more he liked them. He was also a member of the Knight of Columbus for many years.
Leonard was the loving husband of Minnie Parsons; devoted father of Joanne Young and her husband Dennis of Butler, and the late Leonard Parsons, Jr. who passed at the age of two days old; dear brother of the late Raymond Parsons and the late Jeanette Cashman.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Friends may visit with the family from 3-7 PM on Monday, April 13, 2015 at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne.
Funeral services will be held 9:00 AM on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 from the Funeral Home then to Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, 580 Ratzer Road, Wayne (directly across the street from the funeral home) where a 10:00 AM Funeral Mass will be offered.
Interment will be in Saint Gertrude Cemetery, 53 Inman Ave, Colonia, NJ 07067.
Services
Friends may visit with the family from 3-7 PM on Monday, April 13, 2015 at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne.
Funeral services will be held 9:00 AM on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 from the Funeral Home then to Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, 580 Ratzer Road, Wayne (directly across the street from the funeral home) where a 10:00 AM Funeral Mass will be offered.
Interment will be in Saint Gertrude Cemetery, 53 Inman Ave, Colonia, NJ 07067.
Leonard T. Parsons, age 93, of Wayne, formerly Linden, passed Friday, April 10, 2015.
He was born and raised in Elizabeth and attended Elizabeth High School with the Class of 1939. The United States involvement in WWII, and the accompanying surge of patriotism, had young Leonard enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. He enlisted on August 11, 1942 in New York City and was a proud Marine for the rest of his life. Leonard served in the Pacific Theatre of the war and was engaged in the capture and defense of Bougainville, participated in the consolidation of the Solomon Islands, and the capture and occupation of Guam. He was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received on July 25, 1944 in the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre of the war. He was shot, had shrapnel in his leg, and came down with a terrible case of Malaria. He was honorably discharge on October 15, 1945. He was a member of the American Legion Post 102 in Linden and a Life Member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart organization. His wife Minnie is quoted as saying: “His heart never left the Marine Corps.”
After his service in WWII Leonard worked as a machine operator for the Simmons Mattress Copany in Elizabeth and later as a roaster operator and freeze drier for the Tenco Corporation’s coffee plant in Linden where he worked for thirty-eight years before retiring in 1986.
Many years ago Leonard would ride his bicycle around the neighborhood in a constant search for a cute girl named Minnie Venezio. According to Minnie she considered Leonard to be a pest. Minnie’s friends told her she couldn’t get that guy…he was too cute. Again she thought he was a pain in the neck and she couldn’t get rid of him. Their relationship progressed from Leonard throwing rocks at her window and having Minnie’s mother yell out “go home Leonard – leave her alone and don’t come back,” to falling in love during a courtship of just taking walks around the neighborhood. Leonard proposed, just before Minnie’s strict 10 PM curfew, on the front steps of her house at 2110 San Caroline Avenue in Linden. They married at Saint Anthony’s RC Church in Elizabeth on Thanksgiving Day – November 22, 1945. The wedding was delayed as all forgot about getting Leonard’s mother to the church and she was stranded at home. Minnie also remembers Leonard’s father admonishing her: “make sure you take good care of my son.” They honeymooned in New York City and went to see Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theatre. Leonard and Minnie have enjoyed seventy years of a loving, caring, and devoted marriage.
Leonard will be remembered as loving to go hunting, and fishing trips to the beach and pier in Long Branch. He also had a love of cars. At first it was Buick’s and later it was Lincoln’s. The bigger the car and the bigger the engine the more he liked them. He was also a member of the Knight of Columbus for many years.
Leonard was the loving husband of Minnie Parsons; devoted father of Joanne Young and her husband Dennis of Butler, and the late Leonard Parsons, Jr. who passed at the age of two days old; dear brother of the late Raymond Parsons and the late Jeanette Cashman.
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