~ In Memory of H. Leonard Richardson, April 23, 1923 ~ July 11, 2013 ~

On July 11th, in Rochester, New York, Lenny Richardson died, at age 90, from a stroke, which happened on July 5th. Lenny and Eleanor Richardson were married for 63 years. Lenny was a World War II Army Veteran and retired in 1988 as owner of Rochester Typographic Service for 42 years.

Lee (Laura), Dean (Annie Colangelo), Amy Richardson Gaelens Callari (Louis) and Jim (Susan) Richardson were proud to have had a father with such integrity and are grateful for his love, humility, self-control, advice, humor, wisdom, concern, generosity, influence, and compassion throughout their lives. It was surely God's will for him to be blessed with two nurses as daughter-in-laws, Sue and Laura Richardson, whom ultimately, prolonged his life. Lenny and Eleanor were supportive to their granddaughters, Sarah Richardson Wimberly (Rusty) and Lisa (Lee and Laurie's daughters) and Kayla and Kristi Richardson (Jim and Sue's daughters).

Visualize Eleanor Richardson waiting over two years to dance 'cheek to cheek' towards her mansion in the sky, with her leading man, Lenny Richardson to "I'm in Heaven". She knew someday her Prince would come!

Join us in a Celebration of Lenny Richardson's Life on August 7th at 6:45 in the elegant environment of where he lived, The Legacy, 300 Cranberry Landing, Rochester, NY 14609, off of Norton Street, close to 590, where he valued new friends for the past two years. Vocal Jazz Trio, "Company B" will be performing.

Lenny and Eleanor loved three dogs, many birds, fish and turtles and their daughter is an advocate for helping animals; therefore, if the spirit leads, in his memory, donation may go to Rochester Animal Control, 184 Verona St., Rochester, NY 14608, or consider adopting a pet from there.

Lenny vowed to God that someday when he became a father, he would never consider treating his children the way he was treated and excelled in being the epitome of the opposite of these two men. You see, Lenny's father had vanished when he was just three. He never saw him again and suffered poverty because his father provided no financial support for his five sisters, him and his mother. Lenny missed having a brother. It was the desire of his heart to have a daughter, to name after his mother to honor her, although she passed too soon for this awareness. To make it more of a delightful gift, Amy was born on Christmas morning, hence her name is Amy Carol, after Amy Livingston and Carol, like a festive holiday song.

Since youth, Lenny was in the typesetting business, since he had to quit school in the 9th grade to take over his stepfather's business. Although seriously not fully comprehending his valuable vocational training, this prepared him for loftier future expectations. He was rarely paid, seldom played as other children did, and printed church bulletins every Saturday night. All he ever wanted from this man, for merely compensation, was a bicycle to make deliveries and for pleasure, but was always given electric toy trains, and train assessories, his whole life as his only gifts, because it was what his stepfather wanted for himself. He enlisted in the service, to get a fresh start away from his existing life.

After serving in the Army during World War II, which entails numerous stories in itself, he worked at the East Rochester Herald. He drove a friend to the interview and the owner offered Lenny the job instead of the friend who was initially interested. That was due to being highly more qualified, which ultimately lead to him owning his own business for 42 years, Rochester Typographic Service on 36 St. Paul Street, Rochester, NY. He proposed to Eleanor similar to an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, where he used a real newspaper, but replaced one article to place his proposal in that spot. How thrilling and romantic for my mom, although my grandma, rather jokingly, almost had a heart attack in shock. This happened on July 26, 1946 and they married the following Easter Sunday, April 6th. Why not? The church was full of flowers and everyone already had their new Easter bonnets and outfits on!

Here's another precious story. While they were dating, he rigged up a telephone, that he could make ring in his car, that made him quite an amusing futuristic character. Eleanor actually believed his mother was calling! He also had such a distinctive whistle. As a family, when he wanted to leave a store, he'd do his famous bird whistle and everyone who knew him, would follow the call to see him. Many mini-reunions were shared that way! He also was skilled at the art of Yo-Yoing, ping pong, pool and skating. He kept his one-year-old birthday cake up to recently when he moved from Fernwood Avenue, which was built in 1894.

After decades of bowling leagues, golf was ultimately Lenny's game of choice; yet it's fun to think of him juggling heavenly fruit with his son, Dean, while a tambourine playing Eleanor, cheers them on! Be in awe of "Dean's Supernatural Juggling" right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwGmpcUkDuo&feature=youtube_gdata_player. If you had Dean Richardson for a friend, you were privileged. This is the only 37 seconds of his life on the internet, since he died of cancer the age of 57. (He also had quite a collection of wooden flutes he enjoyed playing.)

Dean passed into glory on June 9, 2009 due to brain and bladder cancer. Eleanor reunited with Dean on December 10, 2010, and Len died on the 11th. Not only is it unique that Dean died on the 9th day of the 9th year, Eleanor died on the 10th day of the 10th year but the family death dates are now the 9th, the 10th and the 11th. We are grateful that his sister, Kathleen Bowman, lived at The Legacy and joined him for dinner together for four months. How wonderful that these two sibblings shared such a close and dear relationship for their whole lives.

~ Written by Amy Callari

Here's a link to the above referenced song. Video of Fred and Ginger dancing : http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n3RSlUkw9U0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dn3RSlUkw9U0. Cheek to Cheek lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/frank+sinatra/cheek+to+cheek_20055299.html. Stay tuned, the saga continues...