David Leo Hall was born on February 25th, 1942 in the small town of
Cascade, Idaho during World War II and was the youngest of 13
children. He was preceded in death by his mother, Hazel Viola Hall,
and siblings Norma Tyson, Bob Hall, Warren Hall, Georgia Clegg,
Kenny Hall, Charlotte Thornton, Francis Ward, Maxine Hallett, Ward
Hall, Tom Hall and Milton Hall.
Leo is survived by the love of his life, Pamela Copeland. They met in
1990 and shared 34 memorable years together.
He is also survived by his brother, Forrest Hall of Nampa, Idaho and
his wife Betty. Forrest was the best brother a person could ever have
and is the last of twelve siblings still alive to continue the Hall legacy
forward. Also surviving are sister-in-law, Dorothy (Dottie) Hall of
Macon, Georgia and sister-in-law Betty Hall of Riggins, Idaho.
Leo is survived by four wonderful children, five grandchildren and one
great grandchild: his daughter, Laurie and grandchild, Kaitlyn Marie;
his son, Laine and identical twins Kolt and Kurt and daughter Kara
along with great grandson Kohen; his daughter LouAnn; and his
daughter Cristina and granddaughter Serena. Also surviving are four
generations of nieces and nephews, exceeding 100.
Leo’s mother was proud of the fact that all eight of her sons served in
the military. Warren, who fought for our county during World War II,
was killed on the battlefield and buried in France. Bob was wounded
in Germany and Kenny served as a medic and fought his way through
Germany. His mother carried the burden of being an American Gold
Star Mother for the rest of her life.
While attending Cascade High School, Leo created many fond
memories and was proud of the fact that he was junior class
president, was one of two students chosen to experience Boys State
at the Idaho State Capitol before his senior year and then elected
Student Body President for Cascade High School in 1960.
He was also very active in sports at Cascade. All four years, Leo was a
good athlete playing both football and basketball, of which basketball
was his favorite sport. He was a young teen of many athletic talents;
he also squeezed in a bit of Little League baseball.
After high school, he joined the US Army and served primarily in Fort
Lewis, Washington as an officer’s payroll clerk. For 2 1/2 years, Leo
hand-typed vouchers for 400 officers including his Commanding
General and brigade staff.
During his service, he received an Accommodation Letter from the
Commanding General of Ft. Lewis. He researched several previous
years of allotment vouchers and found a 2 cent a year error in an
allotment that no one else, except his co-worker, could find. He was
barely 20 years old at this point.
In the summer of 1961, Leo, as a part of the 4th Infantry Division,
participated in bivouac training and played War Games in Yakama,
Washington where he received a Battlefield Promotion. In the
military, you are a soldier first. As a Private First Class, he was on
guard duty with a Private E2 in a foxhole during the graveyard shift.
Their job was to challenge anyone coming in to the battleline. A Jeep
of the Red Soldiers, the enemy in this war game, reached the line. Leo
used the code, “Halt. Who goes there?”. After repeating several
times, the enemy lead officer still didn’t respond with the proper
password. Instead, he grunted, raised the hood and said the radiator
was overheating and needed water.
Leo followed the Military’s procedure codes and placed all four
enemy soldiers from the Jeep under arrest, stacked their rifles in a
tripod and sent his E2 Private to get the Sergeant of the Guard. The
four enemy soldiers were taken to a tent and interrogated. It ended
up that the whining soldier pleading for assistance was actually a
Captain in the Special Forces. If those soldiers would have crossed the
enemy line, the War Game was over. It was just Leo and the E2
private who were on guard duty to protect the Commanding General
and Brigade Staff.
At roll call the next day, Leo’s Captain gave him and his private a
battlefield promotion which meant he’d become an E4 Corporal on
the spot!
In October of 1962, Leo was very fortunate to participate in an
exercise called “Exercise Long Thrust”. He served in Germany on
temporary duty for 6 months. He had only 40 officers, merely one
tenth of his previous position, to calculate payroll so he had lots of
free time. He volunteered to compete on the boxing team. As a
muscular 138-pound athlete, Leo trained hard including running 7-8
miles a day, jumping rope and working out on the speed bag. Thanks
to his coach’s experience and expertise in strategic maneuvers, he
trained Leo with a technical skillset that led him to defeating the light
welterweight champion of California. His competitor was toast by the
third round. He felt proud when he won a four-day trip to Paris,
France.
Leo finished the military in July 1963. During a pre-employment
interview, he was timed typing 72 words a minute… on a manual
typewriter. Doing payroll all day in the Army, he was proficient at
reaching for all those numbers at the top of keyboard! Mind you, at
this point he was merely 21 years old! He started working full-time
with the State Insurance Fund. On evenings and weekends, he worked
with Fuller Brush selling door-to-door. Using his vivacious personality,
it was a successful endeavor.
In October, 1964 Leo began working with Martinizing Dry Cleaning
and soon managed his first Martinizing store in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
In one year, Leo had the best net profit and growth of any of the
Martinizing stores. The owner transferred him to Boise to manage five
stores running in the red. In six months, he turned the stores around
and they were making money.
Less than 2 ½ years later, at just 24 years old, the owner promoted
Leo to cover his 26 Martinizing stores. Everything Leo touched
seemed to turn to gold.
In 1977, Leo moved to Denver, Colorado and took a manager position
with Van Dyke Dry Cleaners who cleaned Lowry Air Force Base’s dry
cleanables.
In 1979, Leo started a carpet cleaning business in Denver soon having
five carpet cleaning crews under his ownership. That lead to opening
Apollo Dry Cleaners in Aurora, Colorado. Six months later, he
purchased another dry-cleaning store in Littleton, Colorado. In the Fall
of 1981, he sold them all and moved back to Boise, Idaho where he
accepted a manager-in-training position with Kmart. Four months
later, at an accelerated pace, he was promoted to Cedar City, Utah to
manage the sporting goods and automotive accessories departments.
After four years, he moved back to Boise.
Beginning in 1985, he owned and operated the Meridian Dry Cleaners
store for 21 years. Leo also sold new and used cars for a number of
years.
In addition, Leo bought a used clothing store, Clothes USA, and later
opened a second store.
Even though he retired at 62, Leo never stopped. He worked with
eBay in 1996 selling Levi’s, cowboy and work boots and vintage
clothing. As well, he used his dry-cleaning knowledge to clean Persian
and Oriental rugs.
In a nutshell, Leo was quite an entrepreneur.
Throughout much of his business endeavors, Leo gave Pam credit for
working with him to bring about their successes. Pam was the
perfect soulmate in every way. He was blessed.