When Lela and Paul Lees got married in 1945 in Masury, the idea was that they would settle permanently in Colorado, near where her family lived.
“That was the plan, which never worked,” Mrs. Lees said from her home on Lorain Street on the West Hill in Masury, which is next to the home that Paul grew up in.
The couple met at a dance when Lees was in the army, stationed in Leadville, Colo.
After World War II, Lees got a job at Sharon Steel Corp. that was too good to walk away from. So, Mrs. Lees, who was born in New Mexico and had lived in Kansas and Colorado, gave up her western roots to plant new ones in Ohio.
Mrs. Lees admitted it was culture shock to leave what she knew and settle elsewhere. Masury was more rural than she was used to, and Lorain Street had few houses on it.
“Brookfield was not growing at all,” she said. “There was no street lights.”
And the streets were dirt, and there were no sanitary sewers. There was even a cow across the street.
The Lees family took her in, and she quickly joined the community centered around Sharon United Methodist Church, where her husband’s parents, Fred and Florence Lees, were founding members. People walked more in those days, and so church was reached on foot, often twice on Sundays.
People also visited more, and Mrs. Lees knew and stopped in on all of her neighbors. Birthdays were celebrated as a neighborhood, and parents would call other parents to let them know where their kids were.
Marilyn Yensick, Mrs. Lees’ daughter, said she and her older brother, Gary, a township trustee, had a lot of freedom of movement when they were kids.
“We were everywhere,” Yensick said. “We left after breakfast and played and, if you were lucky, we came home when we were supposed to. The mothers looked after everybody ekse’s kids. We walked downtown, even at night. It was that safe. My kids can’t believe it. ‘Grandma would never let you walk downtown.’ There was a lot to do in downtown Sharon.”
That sense of looking out for each other and helping out when you can was passed down to Mrs. Lees’ children.
“You always gave back to the community,” said Yensick, a former Brookfield teacher. “That was part of us growing up — looking out for your neighbor. That was just part of living in Brookfield. Gary got that from living on this street, living in this community. From the time we were little, we were told to look after other people.”
Mrs. Lees, who has two grandchildren, had taught in a one-room school in Colorado and did some substitute teaching after moving to Masury. However, she enjoyed her role as homemaker, and her outside activities were related to that, including teaching Sunday school and being involved in Yensick’s Girl Scout activities.
“The best thing was Girl Scouts,” Mrs. Lees said. “When I see the girls today, it’s always, ‘There’s my Girl Scouts.’”
Mrs. Lees watched Brookfield grow.
“We’ve done a lot of improvements with street lights and sewers and helping the elderly people,” she said. “That always makes me feel good.”
Yet, she’s also seen a decline. The business community has contracted, and people have moved away. Paul died six years ago.
Mrs. Lees remains optimistic about the future of her community, though.
“I wish more industry would be able to come in and be successful,” she said. “That’s my hope.”
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