Col. Ercie Joyce Leach

When I first became interested in my family tree and began my search for records and relatives I met (on the internet) this charming man, Ercie Joyce Leach. He also had the genealogy bug and he had traveled to the Library of Congress as part of his search - and he happily shared his family information with me.  What a nice person and  what a help to me, a distant cousin. Sadly, I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person.

Ercie was the son of Willis Riley Leach (1905-1952) and Lucy Ophelia Smith (1908-1964) and he was born in Beaver Dam.  His date of birth was 26 Sep 1931 and he died 4 May 2013 in Summerville, South Carolina at age 81.  Ercie was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

Ercie attended Western KY University and joined the Army 5 Feb 1953 at age 21. He later completed his college degree at Omaha University, Omaha, NE.  He retired from the Army on January 31, 1984 in Fort Rucker, AL with the rank of Colonel.  He served in KY, MD, OK, WA, AL, Korea, CO, KS, TX, HA, GA, Vietnam, CA, VA, DC, AK, and Germany. During his military career he was an Artillerymen and a Pilot. Some highlights of his career include working at the Pentagon and flying President Harry S. Truman. During his service with the Army Colonel Leach was awarded the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross (for Heroism), Bronze Star(Three Awards), Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal (Seven Awards), Army Commendation Medal, Good Conduct Medal and seven other Service and Campaign Medals. Following retirement from the Army he worked in cellular telephone communications for Whalen & Company, Inc., Lafayette, CA as a Project Director, Market Team Leader, Mar 1990 to Nov 1995. His teams built more than 800 Cellular Sites in Germany, Argentina, Oakland-San Francisco area, Detroit, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Tampa and Boston. He retired in Chicago on April 14, 1996 and moved to South Carolina to live out his Golden Years.  He was a Professional Soldier in the United States Army.  He was a Methodist.  He was named after Ercie Jarnigan, Ercie Irvin Leach and Joyce Raley.

Ercie was married to Emily Dorrine Pochelu on June 9, 1956 in Powell Butte, Crook County, OR.  Dorrine is a graduate of Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. In Ercie's words, "From the time we were married in 1956 until I retired in 1984 I moved Dorrine and our children to 25 different houses, apartments or government quarters and she and the children never complained. Well, maybe once, when I was stationed at Fort Ord, California in 1970-1972.  I got horses for my 12 and 14 year old daughters since we had a riding facility and stables on the Army Post. But in 1972 I got ordered to the Pentagon in Washington, DC and had to sell the horses. Needless to say, they would have rather sold “old dad”, than the horses. But, pretty soon, they came to understand."

Here is a note that Ercie sent me about 15 years ago: 

     "Manda was kind of a nickname, I guess you could call it that, the real name of the old post office (when there was one) was Mount Pleasant. It is still known as the Mt. Pleasant or Manda community. Old folks who lived up there called it Mandy. The story goes that the first Postmistress was Amanda somebody, and it took that nickname. The old church (I think Methodist) is still there. We lived there when I was about one to four years old. My dad would carry me to church, lay me in the back pew, and carry me home again after the Sunday Evening Service. We lived about a mile back South down the road toward Select and Rob Roy. Mount Pleasant is about 3 or 4 miles on up the Sandefur's Crossing Road (now Rob Roy Road) from Mt. Zion Church. If you drew a line on the map from Horton to Select, Mt. Pleasant would be about half way between the two. From Mt. Pleasant there is another road (I think KY 505) that goes past the Leach Community into Rosine.  My Leach relatives (Old William who came with his sons to Ohio County about 1799-1800) settled on the Muddy Creek very close to the present Mount Zion Church on Sandefur's Crossing Road. The old farm was passed down to his son Leonard, then to his son John Nelson, then to John Nelson's son John Crittenden, then his son Nelson Dudley, my Grand father.The farm was about 300 yards from the present Mt. Zion Church. All of the above Leaches are buried in the Mt. Zion Cemetery, except my Grandfather and Father. They are buried in the Sunnyside Cemetery in Beaver Dam. Many of my Leach relatives also lived in Select, Cromwell and Rob Roy. My Smith, Bennett, Benton, Hayes, English and Chapman relatives lived in No Creek, near Hartford, and Horton in Ohio County and Yeaman and Spring Lick in Grayson County. My Great Uncle George Leach, Dudley's brother, and family lived in Select. My two older sisters attended Excelsior School - their first 2 or 3 years in 1930-34."

     "My Dad worked at several places as a Foreman with the WPA. I think he took that job sometime in the mid 30's. I can remember living in the James Sandefur House, the Sept Leach House, then Horton, Fordsville (we all had measles there), Elkton in Todd County (there was a  Haunted House on the street where we lived, Hobart and I got in to the house some way and took a ceremonial sword of some kind, I couldn't understand why it wasn't sharp; anyhow, Mama made us take it back to the house. We hated to go in that time, we were sure the ghosts would know us.), and then Morgantown."

     "We moved to Morgantown in 1940. I thought Morgantown must be a very evil place, a man was killed by Captain John Smith (Everyone called him Uncle John), the Town Marshal, the night of our first day there. The man cut Uncle John pretty bad before he was shot. Daddy took us to town to see what we could see. I think I remember seeing the man who was shot laying pretty close to the street under a cover of some kind. Maybe this is just my imagination from a long time ago. I do remember seeing Uncle John's uniform all cut up, when he brought it to the pressing shop for Bess Wilson to mend and clean. I fired the boiler for Bess for the pressing machines. (My first paying job in 1941 at age nine) We lived in four different houses in Morgantown. The first one burned down on 6 Dec 1941, a terrible tragedy in my memory. Everything we had burned. The thing I remember most though was how badly I felt that I had 35 cents in my dresser drawer and it burned. I don't remember much about the bombing of Pearl Harbor that happened the next day, but the previous day is "burned" into my memory."

Colonel Ercie Joyce Leach - a self-made man of honor. A proud man from Ohio County. A patriotic man that served his country well. A dignified man that should be remembered.  If you are ever in Arlington Cemetery, go visit Ercie. He is in Section 54, Site 2076.  Thank him for his service.