Leslie Clare Mitchell Jr.

Leslie Clare Mitchell, Jr. W8WLQ Mason Leslie "Les" Clare Mitchell, Jr., age 84, loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather, passed away peacefully on April 17, 2010 following a brief period of declining strength and health. He was born August 5, 1925 in Lansing, Michigan, the only child of Leslie C. Mitchell, Sr. and Lila May (Mull) Mitchell, who preceded him in death. I can hear them now, "here comes our son." Les graduated from Eastern High School in 1942 and graduated from college with a degree in electrical engineering. Leslie proudly served his country in the United States Army and is a veteran of World War II and the Korean Conflict. He worked for Diamond Reo for 20 years before moving onto the City of Lansing and working there for 15 years and then retired. Les was an amateur Ham radio operator beginning around the age of 12. During the Vietnam War, pre-internet days, he used his ham radio skills to run phone patches, or telephone calls, home from the soldiers to their families. It's a story of the successful Vietnam war-time partnership between the military and the country's radio amateurs, W8WLQ, Les (Love-Easy-Sugar). He was a magician for many years, putting on magic shows at his grandchildren's birthday parties; pulling rabbits out of hats, doves out of the air and poof! Fire into candy. His special blend of magic, music, stories, stunts, gags, card tricks and coin tricks would leave you wanting more of his Magical Fantasies. Les is survived by his daughter, Peggy Wear of Dimondale; son, Kenneth Mitchell (Jenni) of Lansing; 9 grandchildren; 6 great-grandchildren; and special and dear friend, June Stoutjesdyk. The family will receive friends from 6 - 8 p.m. Wednesday at Field & Leik Funeral Home, Dimondale. Private interment services with military honors will be at Carson City Cemetery. On line condolences may be made at: eggy103@aol.com "Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well." - Henry Scott Holland.