War hero's widow gets reprieve Eviction on hold after fund set up to spare 70-year-old

A war hero's widow who faced eviction from her home today has been granted a reprieve.

According to a veteran's group that's trying to help 70-year-old Lois Leonard keep her house, U.S. Bank in Mobile, Ala., has agreed to extend its deadline a "few days" for her to come up with the $64,000 necessary to redeem it.

EFFORT LAUNCHED TO SAVE HOME O ... 02/14/2003
Birmingham News Volume: 115 Issue: 290
Date: 02/14/2003 Section: News Page: 05-B
Keywords: LOIS LEONARD

EFFORT LAUNCHED TO SAVE HOME OF HERO'S WIDOW
VIVI ABRAMS News staff writer
She lost her husband in the Vietnam War. Now, 70-year-old Birmingham
resident Lois Leonard might lose her house.
She fell behind in mortgage payments after her house needed massive
renovations. Then, she put her trust in a lawyer who took $661, promised to
help, and disappeared. Now, her mortgage company threatens to evict her on
Tuesday.
But not if Bobby Randle, past Alabama department commander of the
Military Order of the Purple Heart, can help. He has launched a campaign
to raise money to keep Leonard and her grown daughter in their house.
''How are we supposed to take care of the widows of veterans going off
and dying if we can't take care of the widows who are staying?'' said
Randle, who, like Leonard's husband Matthew Leonard, served in the Vietnam
war and was wounded there. ''I am pleading with people to assist our
veterans and spouses in their time of need like this.''
Sgt. Matthew Leonard died in 1967 near Suoi Da. He was 37. He was killed
while protecting his men after his platoon was attacked, and received the
Medal of Honor for his actions. Lois Leonard accepted it in his stead.
She went on to raise their five children in her home, 1709-A Gaston
Circle. She never remarried. Recently, the aging home needed massive
renovations.
''I had had some work done on it, roofing, and the bathroom floors were
rotten, the whole bathtub had to be replaced, the whole inside of the
house needed repainted,'' Leonard said. ''Just when I got through with
all of that work, my electricity went bad. I had to get the house
rewired.'' She fell behind in payments. After receiving threatening
letters from the bank that owns the house, Leonard called Randle, who
helped her several years ago when her husband's body needed to be moved
from Shadow Lawn cemetery to a veteran's cemetery at Fort Mitchell near
Fort Benning, Ga.
Randle set up a trust fund at SouthTrust Bank. Anyone who wants to help
can write a check at any SouthTrust branch for the Lois Leonard Mortgage
Redemption Fund.
Now Leonard, who has asthma and lung disease, is praying, she said.
''I'm trusting in the Lord,'' she said. ''Anything they do, I'll
appreciate. If I lose the house, I'll try to rent me one. I'll just have
to give it up. I'd hate to have to do it, I've been here so long.''

War hero's widow to get house back WND readers, veterans, others raise funds to reclaim home, stop eviction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 24, 2003 5:30 p.m. Eastern By Diana Lynne © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com A war hero's widow who lost her home through foreclosure will get to reclaim it thanks to the generosity of her husband's fellow veterans, her neighbors and WorldNetDaily readers all across the country who heeded her plea for help.

Lois Leonard, 70, will reclaim her home of 35 years on Feb. 28, the anniversary of her husband's valorous death in Vietnam.

"I'm very thankful for the way things turned out," Leonard told WorldNetDaily. "I'm thankful for all those who donated and I thank the Lord for touching their hearts."

"Feb. 28 was probably the worst day of Mrs. Leonard's life – she lost her husband of 17 years," Gary Littrelle, vice president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, or MOH, told WorldNetDaily. "I would love to make it one of the happiest days of her life."

Littrelle is scheduled to join Bobby Randle, past commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, in Birmingham, Ala., Friday to present Leonard with the deed to her home.

The two men orchestrated fund-raising efforts which have raised approximately $55,000 to pay off the finance company who holds the mortgage to the house, to spare Leonard from the imminent eviction she faced.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Leonard fell three months behind on her $661 mortgage payments while trying to renovate the decaying home she bought in 1968. She had paid off the original Veterans Administration loan but refinanced the property in 2000 to pay for renovations. After replacing the roof and fixing the bathroom the repairs started snowballing to the point she found herself completely rewiring the house.

"Once you get behind, with medical bills and all it's hard to catch up," Leonard told WND. The widow suffers from diabetes, severe asthma and chronic bronchitis. She has been unable to work and raised the couple's five children on the fixed income of her husband's military benefits and disability payments.

On Feb. 28, 1967 Army Sergeant First Class Matthew Leonard's platoon came under heavy attack near Suoi Da in South Vietnam by a large enemy force employing small arms, automatic weapons, and hand grenades. The platoon leader and other key personnel were wounded so Leonard assumed command, rallied his troops, and set a defensive perimeter.

When a wounded companion fell beyond that perimeter, Leonard rushed to his aid, sustaining a sniper wound as he dragged the man to safety. He refused aid, and continued to lead his platoon in their defense.

Under the cover of the main attack, the enemy moved a machinegun into a location where it could sweep the entire perimeter. This threat was magnified when the platoon machinegun in this area malfunctioned. Leonard quickly crawled to the gun position and was helping to clear the malfunction when the gunner and other men in the vicinity were wounded by fire from the enemy machinegun.

Leonard rose to his feet, charged the enemy gun and destroyed the hostile crew despite being hit several times by enemy fire. He moved to a tree, propped himself against it, and continued to engage the enemy until he succumbed to his many wounds.

His valiant acts inspired the remaining members of his platoon to hold back the enemy until assistance arrived.

Leonard was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty." He was one of 20 Black Americans to receive that honor in Vietnam. There have only been 3,425 identified Medal of Honor recipients.

The MOH was chartered by Congress in 1958 to provide aid to medal recipients, their widows or their children.

"I'm very proud to say we've lived up to our charter and have taken care of our own," Littrelle told WND. "When I got the word about Mrs. Leonard's situation I said, this is not going to happen. We need to buy that house back and give it to her." His organization has earmarked $10,000 to help Mrs. Leonard.

Littrelle next turned to close friend and colleague Arnold Fisher, chief executive officer of the Fisher House Foundation, who agreed to chip in $30,000 toward the effort.

Meanwhile, Randle set up the "Lois Leonard Redemption Fund" to which Matthew Leonard's combat unit contributed $3,000 and WorldNetDaily readers, Mrs. Leonard's neighbors and fellow churchgoers and others donated some $12,000. More than $55,000 was raised altogether.

Leonard was initially told she needed to come up with $64,800 to reclaim her house, but Littrelle and Randle succeeded in negotiating a reduced price of $40,000 from Litton Finance Corporation in Houston, Texas.

"I guess when they realized this was a widow of a posthumous MOH recipient, it touched their heart," said Littrelle.

A call to Litton seeking comment was not returned.

Now that the organizers are in a position of having collected more than they need, Littrelle said the monies from the fund would go towards paying off the mortgage, with the balance coming from MOH and the Fisher House Foundation. He said what was left over would be used to complete the outstanding renovations on Leonard's home.

"The house is in bad need of renovation," said Littrelle. "The hot water heater doesn't work. The furnace quit working two years ago and there never has been air conditioning."

"She's feeling much, much better now," Randle told WND from Leonard's home while supervising the installation of a hot-water heater.

"I just can't put it into words," Leonard added. "I slept better last night than I have in a long while."

Previous articles: War hero's widow faces eviction War hero's widow gets reprieve

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