Recent Leland Pennington Findings

Hello "Lucy Gal" followers!

Recently, my Aunt (Sally Parker, Rochester Business Journal) has begun helping me  research more on Leland Pennington's pre-war days. When I first learned of Leland an began doing research 2 years ago for the project, I found that he grew up with his Uncle and Aunt in Rochester. I also found the names of said Uncle/Aunt by searching the 1930 census report. 

Leland Pennington's Uncle was Solomon Young, his Aunt way Fannie Young. After finding these names through my research, I never fully delved into learning more. At the time, I got real busy with other aspects of the project and didn't have the time.

This past fall, I had a very ironic coincidence occur in a museum studies course I was taking at St. John Fisher. My professor had passed around an old document from the George Eastman records, and what name should appear in the report? Why, non other than a Mr. Solomon Young! It turns out the Solomon, Leland's Uncle, was the last Valet of Mr. George Eastman! George Eastman is better known as the founder of Kodak.

Now, with my Aunt's help, we have been able to learn a lot more about Leland Pennington's upbringing. Recent research has found an image of Solomon Young and Fanny driving in a parade to honor Frederick Douglas. The picture was taken in 1924, two years after Leland was born. Look closely, you see the young boy (circled) sitting in the lap of Fanny? That is a 1-2 year old Leland Pennington!

Cool Huh? :-)

My Aunt and I dug further. We found that in the few months between his graduation from Monroe H.S. and his deployment to Ramitelli, Leland worked for the Rochester Smelting Foundry. See the excerpts from the paper below for details. This was all very exciting to find!

 

We made one last discovery through our "sleuthing." Apparently, Leland Pennington is somewhere in the following iconic photo taken of a group of Tuskegee Airmen in a pre-mission briefing. I have not yet been able to pin down which one of these guys he is (probably in the background.) Still, even knowing that he is somewhere in this photo, one that is recognised by thousands, is quite fulfilling.

Not sure which is Leland Pennington just yet!

So there you have it, the latest "findings" on our local MIA Tuskegee hero, Leland H. Pennington. Stay tuned for more news and updates!

- Austin H.