LEON CHARLES TRADER, STARTED WITH CLASS OF 1966, PASSES AWAY

 

Military hero Leon Charles Trader

Passes away

 

Leon Charles Trader, who started with the Class of 1966 at Monongah High but left to join the Army. He was wounded in Vietnam, earning him the Purple Heart.

 

Everson resident Joseph Bombard, Class of 1966 along with Joe’s wife, Marva Holt Bombard, told me:

 

“John Olesky, I knew Mr. Trader very well. He would have graduated class of 1966 but he quit school and joined the Army and was sent to Viet Nam where he was injured and received the Purple Heart.

 

“We grew up together in Everson. We hunted, fished and played kids sports together. Both our fathers were coal miners in those days. We played our sports games in a pasture field. We where really close.”

 

Fishing buddies is correct. Leon’s obituary photo show him holding a LARGE fish!

 

Monongah High Alumni Association president Linda Lopez Gandy, Class of 1965 and living in Florida with husband Jim Gandy, Class of 1964, and Helen McDougal Mudry, Helen McDougal Mudry, Class of 1965 and sister of the late Reva McDouglas Ash who was in my Class of 1950, remember attending classes with Leon at Thoburn Elementary School.

Helen also recalled: "He was a nice person. I used to see him in the stores and he always stopped and talked."

I found a photo of Leon as a sophomore in the 1964 Monongah High Black Diamond yearbook.

 

Leon’s siblings are Alice Bombard McDougal, Class of 1961, and Frank Bombard, Class of 1958; and the late Charles “Bob” Bombard. And Lillian Trader Wilson, Class of 1971.

 

A much older Frank Bombard, maybe 1958 Frank’s father?, was in the Class of 1932 that included Louise Shroyer Trader, NOT Leon’s mother; Roy Basnett; my dad’s sister, Helen Olesky Kerekes, who married Steve Kerekes of Carolina; George Shelosky; Jim Meredith; Paula Calabrase Hewitt; Mary Monzo Hinerman; Dorothy Rogers Wilson, who married the Monongah Bank manager; Josephine Smolanovich Jurasko; Catherine Teano Fabian; Julia Urban.

 

As a kid BORN in 1932 those names ring a lot of bells in my memory tower, including my Class of 1950 classmate Patty Meredith Wells’ brother, Jim Meredith, although I never met him. I had several reunions in Florida and Ohio with Patty and her other brother, Bill Meredith, Class of 1957, who lives in Sarasota, Florida with his wife, Roleta, a Clarksburg Washington Irving graduate who keeps track of WI alumni even better than I do of Lions.

 

 

 

If you have memories of Leon (or Charles, if he went by that name) Facebook them to me and I’ll add them to this article.

 

Leon’s obituary:

 

LEON CHARLES TRADER

November 22, 1946 - February 24, 2023

 

Leon Charles Trader, 76, of Fairmont, passed away Friday, February 24, 2023. He was born in Everson, WV, on November 22, 1946, a son of the late Stanley Ketchel Trader and Phylis Mae Allen Trader.

Leon was a veteran of the United States Army during the Vietnam War and was a Purple Heart Recipient. Leon was also an avid fisherman.

Leon is survived by his wife, Betty L. Trader; and children, Cynthia Lynn Harkins, Christina Lee Trader, and Leon Allen Trader, all of Fairmont. He is also survived by his sister, Lillian Wilson and her husband Otto of Everson; and several nieces and nephews.

In addition to his parents, Leon was preceded in death by his sister, Elaine Vandergrift.

A private, family service will be held. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.domicofh.com .