Leslie Oliver JAHNKE ^{3 4}

  General Notes:

PHOTO: submitted by Melissa Hillstrom

1900 IA CENSUS, Mills Co, Silver City:
Leslie Jahnke, son, 19, single, b. IA, parents b. Germany, day laborer.
He was living with Aug F. & A. F. Jahnke, and siblings.

WWI DRAFT REGISTRATION CARDS, 1917-1918:
Name: Leslie Oliver Jahnke
Residence: 106 3rd St., Red Oak, Montgomery Co, IA
Birth Date: 15 Mar 1883
Race: White
Age: 35
Occupation: car repairer
Employer: CB & Q RR, Red Oak, IA
Nearest Relative: Myrtle May Jahnke (wife)
Height/Build: Medium/Medium
Color of Eyes/Hair: Brown/Brown

DEATH CERTIFICATE:
Full Name of deceased: Leslie Oliver Jahnke
Sex: Male
Color: White
Marital status: Married
Name of wife: Gladys Jahnke
Birthdate: 15 Mar 1883
Age: 63 years, 6 months and 18 days
Birthplace: Blythesdale, Missouri
Usual Occupation: Cement Finisher
Fathers name: August Jahnke, birthplace: Germany
Mother's name: Armetta Lott, birthplace: Michigan
Informant signature: Gladys Jahnke
Address: 325 W. Colfax Denver, Colorado
Burial on 7 Oct 1946
Fairmount Cemetery
Burial director: Olinger Mortuaries
Address: 2600 16^th Street
Elveta C. Myers, 7 Oct 1946
Usual residence of deceased: 2270 So. Federal Blvd., Denver, Arapahoe Co., Colorado USA
Date of death 3 Oct 1946 at 12:30PM
Last time was seen alive, 3 Oct 1946
Immediate cause of death: Pulmonary Embolus due to: Carcinoma body and tail pancreas that metastases to the liver. Omen turn small.
J Bood M.D.
730 Republic Building
(submitted by Melissa Hillstrom)

FIND A GRAVE - Fairmount Cem, Denver, Denver Co, CO:
Father
Leslie O. Jahnke
1881-1946

INFO FROM MELISSA HILLSTROM:
In the early years, Leslie was a dry land farmer. He farmed in Montgomery Co., Iowa and later in Genoa, Lincoln Co., Colorado. One story goes like this… One day, while in Iowa, a fortuneteller told Leslie that he was going to move to a place and that he would become rich in oil! So, together with a man, by the last name of Ewing, Leslie bought land in Genoa. They flipped a coin to see who would get the first choice. Ewing won the toss and chose the north end, so Leslie took the south. The south never yielded oil and its unknown if the north ever did. In 1920, Leslie moved his family to this land where they had a little 4 room house. Leslie stayed with farming until a severe hailstorm destroyed a crop. He left looking for work as a bricklayer, first in Wyoming and then Denver.
Another story is: In 1929, after a severe hailstorm had destroyed the crop, Leslie had left the farm to find work. It was the 4^th of July and Myrtle decided to make ice cream to celebrate! She loaded her kids into the wagon pulled by, 'Pet', the horse, and went out into the fields to find the milking cow that had calved that spring. She set about milking and while doing so, a rattlesnake bit the family dog. Myrtle loaded up the milk and the dog and went back to the house and set about doctoring the dog, and he lived! Afterwards, Myrtle made the ice cream. Bob said it was the first and the best ice cream he had ever had!
Leslie was a productive worker but he developed a skin condition from the lye that was used in the mortar. It was very painful and his hands would get severely cracked and bleed. Leslie had never stopped chasing his dream of striking it rich. One of his sons told me that Leslie had bought a machine for $100 (that he borrowed against the farm), that could make panning for gold a cinch! The machine didn't work and because Leslie didn't have the money to pay back the $100, he lost the farm.
Sometime after 1937, Myrtle and Leslie divorced. He remarried to a gal named Gladys.

Leslie married Myrtle Mae LIDDICK, daughter of George Gary "Jack" LIDDICK and Rosella FORSHEY, on 4 Jul 1904 in Red Oak, Montgomery Co, IA.^{1 2} (Myrtle Mae LIDDICK was born on 18 Oct 1889 in Red Oak, Montgomery Co, IA,^{2 8} died in 1961 in Denver, Denver Co, CO ⁷ and was buried in Fairmount Cem, Denver, Denver Co, CO ⁷.)

Leslie next married Gladys (---) before Oct 1946.²