♂Leslie Leland Koons

Leslie Leland Koons (11 September 1922 – 7 January 2021), known as “Bacon”, was an Oklahoma-born resident of Flora, Illinois, remembered there as the “Keeper of the Town’s Keys”: every evening he locked up the town’s business offices, and every Sunday he had First Christian Church open for worship. He was a first cousin of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014): his father, Clarence Edward Koons (1893–1975), was the younger brother of her mother, Mary Magdalene Koons (1885–1977).

Early life

Leslie was born on 11 September 1922 in Oklahoma, one of the nine children of Clarence Edward Koons and Lenora May Tate, who had married in 1915. Their eldest daughter, Sylvia, was born at Flora, in Clay County, Illinois, in 1915, but the couple then moved to Blaine County, Oklahoma, where the sisters born just before and after Leslie, Anna Louise in 1920 and Opal Pearl in 1925, were both born. The family did not stay: by the birth of his younger brother Fred Devere in July 1927 they were back at Flora, and it is at Flora that the rest of the record finds Leslie.

Flora

His obituary gives the fullest picture of his life at Flora. He attended First Christian Church there, and for many years made sure the church building was unlocked and ready before the Sunday congregation arrived. In the town he was known for the same care at the other end of the day: each evening he went round the business offices, checked that everything was in order, turned out the lights and locked the doors. The obituary does not say whether this was paid work or a service he took on himself, and it does not explain the nickname “Bacon”. It names no wife or children.

Death

Leslie Leland Koons died on the morning of 7 January 2021, aged 98, at Flora Rehabilitation & Health Care Center. He had outlived both his parents and all eight of his brothers and sisters: Sylvia, Earl, Bernice, Louise, Opal, Fred, Orvil and Robert. He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Flora; the obituary announced a graveside ceremony there for a later date.