MY DAD "THE GENTLEST MAN!"

       It was in the late 1990's and I ran into Bill and Alice Lyle,  long time residents of the Laurel community, at the Hy-Vee food store in Marshalltown, Iowa. His comment to me was that he had purchased an old print at a flee market in Waterloo, Iowa and that I might have an interest in viewing it.

      A little later, after finished with shopping, I stopped over to their home. He showed me a print from an old Wallace Farmer magazine from the 1930's. It was a full page ad by International Harvester Company featuring their McCormick-Deering (Farmall) tractor line. 

       In the ad was a picture of my Dad, my Uncle Tommy, and my Grandpa--Tom (T.A.) Laverty gathered around the gravity gas pump at Grandpa's home and farm south of Laurel, Iowa. Since I had never seen that photo, I was quite touched to say the least.

      But,  even more importantly, Bill looked right at me and said that he, even though some what younger, knew my Dad quite well and that--"He was the gentlest man he had ever known!" I will never forget that moment.