Leonard Boone passed away in Peoria, Illinois. The obituary was featured in Peoria Journal Star on December 5, 2013.

This was an article written about him before his death

Prime Times: Well Versed

CLARE HOWARD

Published Aug 1 2009

Leonard Boone, 91, always figures out how to participate, contribute and be productive - from his years growing up during the Great Depression hunting squirrel for his mother, to his MASH years in World War II, to a career teaching to his unique contribution now as a resident at Riverview Retirement Center in East Peoria.

As his strength and independence have declined, he's modified his contribution. His current endeavor won't fill a savings account or put food on the table, but it's a source of joy for people around him.

Boone was born in 1918 in Waynesboro, Pa. During the Great Depression, when food was scarce, Boone often provided dinner for his parents and siblings.

"My mother was terrified that someday the family would come to the table, and there would be no food," Boone recalled recently. "I had a 12-gauge hammerless shotgun from my grandfather, and on Saturday I'd be gone all day hunting squirrels, rabbits, occasionally partridge and a few ducks. I loved those days by myself in the woods. My mother was always anxious for anything I brought home."

During World War II, he was a medic. He was shipped to India and spent 40 days on board a transport ship with 2,000 troops.

"The first night out we hit storms, some of the worst the ship had ever been in. The captain was sick and nearly all of the 2,000 men on board were sick at the same time," Boone said.

"It was truly a nightmare. It went on for three solid days. One guy died and was buried at sea. We ran out of fresh water and had to shower with salt water. We all had heat rash."

In Burma, Boone worked in an evacuation hospital for the seriously wounded before they were shipped to a general hospital.

"I took the military quite well. For some reason, I didn't let it get me down or upset me terribly. A lot of the guys just couldn't handle it," Boone said.

"In the jungle where we lived for six months, the temperature was 99 degrees and the humidity was 99 percent. Moss grew on all the leather. We slept with mosquito netting, and every night we'd spray DDT inside our tents. Despite that, 40 percent of the fellows got malaria."

Boone said rumors swept through his unit that everyone would be shipped to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan. But before that happened, America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered.

After the war, Boone returned home and enrolled in Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, Iowa, near where his parents were then living.

He met his wife, Laura, when she was in college, and they married in 1947.

She was a music teacher and choir director. The two traveled in Europe with musical groups she directed. Both taught for their careers and also gave swimming lessons for 30 years in their backyard pool. Their roster of swimming students grew from a dozen the first year to more than 300 a summer.

In their retirement years on Sanibel Island in Florida, Boone began writing poetry. He compiled two books of poetry about animals. Since then, writing poetry has been nearly a daily part of his life. When his son John died suddenly at age 53, Boone wrote poetry.

When his wife was hospitalized recently at Proctor Hospital, Boone wrote poetry for the nurses there.

When the couple first moved into Riverview about seven months ago, Boone started giving poems to the servers in the dining room.

"When I first came here, I thought there was a lot of sadness. I thought maybe it was because people were not showing appreciation," Boone said.

"I made it my business to learn the names of all the servers. I give them all poems. Every meal I give one of the servers a poem."

Caitlin Rydinsky, 20, said she keeps all the poems she has received from Boone.

"I share them with my mom. It makes you feel special to get a poem," she said.

Boone said, "That's the reason I do it. I want the servers to feel special. Poetry helps."

One server who blushed and said no one had ever given her a poem before, recited from memory one of the poems Boone gave her:

"If you are a gentleman

and never a thug

From the lovely Diana

you may get a hug."

His poems range from limericks to several self-published books of children's poetry and one book titled "Atoms."

"Poetry is important to me," Boone said. "It's an outlet. People seem to enjoy my poems, and it makes me feel like I've done something. That's important, especially with the kind of life I'm now living."