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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.''