M. Leeds Chesshir

M.Leeds Chessir, 97, of Cottonwood, and formerly a long time resident of Sedona, passed away on Sunday, May 7, 2006. Leeds was born in Peabody, Kansas on July 10, 1908 and raised in Nebraska. After graduating from high school in 1925, he left for Chicago and worked for the National Air Transport Co. who carried the mail from coast to coast using former Douglas was planes. He was instrumental in opening the Consolidated Air Passenger office, handling all air passenger flights out of Chicago. His picture was in a 1927 edition of the Popular Mechanics magazine selling the first ticket on a regular passenger line out of Chicago which was the Southwest Airlines in St. Louis. Tickets from Chicago to Los Angeles flew you by day and by train at night. A ticket to New York was $450 and you donned a flying suit and sat with your legs on the mail sacks in an open cockpit. Having always been enchanted with seeing California's orange groves and roses, he left Chicago to be western representative of the Official Aviation Guide. He worked for the Los Angeles Times in their new building after the old one was blown up. Later he was a distributor for both the L.A. Times and L.A. Examiner. Leeds met his first wife, Mary Long and they were married in 1934. They had two boys, Leeds Jr. an engineer, and Robert a lawyer. Leeds was the first employee of the Disneyland Hotel, where he kept the books on the construction cost and later retiring from the hotel as Credit Manager in 1972 when the couple moved to Sedona. Leeds was a long time member of the Lions International and the Horseless Carriage Club in California, and a charter member of the Elks and Mason, Good Sam Club and the Sedona Car Club in Sedona. He had an avid interest in old cars and stationary engines and was active in the Arizona Flywheelers club. He had seven Air-cooled Franklin cars at one time, one had belonged to Mary Pickford\u0027s film producer and is now in the Montreal Canada museum. There were only six of that model made. Leeds was preceded in death by his first wife, Mary in 1987, and Ethel his second wife in 1993 and us survived by his wife Joanne. He will be missed by his many friends and family. He had five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. He is also survived by 5 step-children and 12 step grandchildren. He will be missed primarily for his kindness and generosity. A memorial service will be held on Friday, May 12th at 11:00 AM at the Westcott Funeral Funeral Home, 1013 E. Mingus Avenue, Cottonwood, AZ. An online guestbook is available at www.westcottfuneralhome.com