LEROY DEBOOM

This is the story of a young man who had the world on a string, with endless possibilities, only to have the rug pulled out from under him. This is the story of how that young man refused to give up, going on to live an interesting, productive life. This is the story of LeRoy DeBoom.

One can find articles about LeRoy’s early years all through the St. Louis Park Dispatch in the 1940s and ‘50s. He was an exceptionally smart, active kid. He was a crossing guard at Brookside School back in the days when children crossed Highway 100 by foot to get to school. He was a paperboy, with routes covering practically the whole South Side. He was a Boy Scout, ushering with the first aid group at Memorial Stadium. In 1949 he won a trip to the Boy Scout Jamboree at Valley Forge from the Minneapolis Star. He was a scholar, competing in the Minneapolis Star’s Information and World Affairs test for several years as a teenager. Despite his height of 6”4, he confesses to not being a very coordinated athlete, but his big interest was in journalism.  In 1950-51 he was the third page editor of the Echo, and the paper was rated All-American by the National Scholastic Press Association, the first time in Park History.  LeRoy was the editor of the Echo his senior year of 1952-52.

Everything was buzzing along – he had been offered a full scholarship to Harvard, which he accepted over the offer from Yale (which would have required him to work in the cafeteria). The summer of 1952 was spent working at the Star, sending prizes to paperboys (with Dating Game host Jim Lange) and catching up on some math skills at West High.

And then it happened. One day that August, LeRoy started feeling ill, perhaps with the flu. On the second day, his leg buckled under him, and by the third day, he was in the hospital in an iron lung. It was polio.

Polio (poliomyelitis), a disease caused by a virus, started to become common in our area in the early 1930’s. Better sanitation rendered people less immune to the virus, with the result that it became more powerful than it had ever been. The first cases were seen in the U.S. as early as 1894 and it reached epidemic proportions in about 1946. Each year until 1955, the polio “season” would begin in May and peak in the early fall. Public pools were closed, civic celebrations were cancelled, and even school openings were delayed. During the epidemic, 735 lives were lost in Minnesota to the disease. Victims, usually young children, experienced atrophy of the legs and chest, which eventually caused difficulty breathing. Doctors splinted the affected extremities with plaster and wood, often causing permanent damage, and placed the patient in an iron lung respirator to assist breathing. Sister Kenney developed her own method of physical therapy. The Salk and Sabin vaccines were developed only a few years later, and by the mid 1950s the illness was eliminated.

But that was too late for LeRoy, who spent 22 months in the hospital, first at Minneapolis General and then at the Sister Kenney Institute. He graduated from an iron lung to a rocking bed, then to a wheelchair. When he was discharged, he was unable to walk, and had use of only three fingers. But his mind was clear and he was determined to go on with his life, albeit with some changes.

LeRoy’s courage was demonstrated when he decided to attend the U of M. These were days long before the campus was accessible to wheel chairs, and often LeRoy would have to recruit strong students to give him a lift up a flight of stairs. Logistics became too daunting after two quarters, though, and he started going to night school, chauffeured by his father. He had learned to type at Sister Kenney, and his father had rigged up steel weights on pulleys to facilitate his typing. He studied accounting, and it took him several years, but he took every accounting class he could, and he indeed worked as an accountant for two companies until his health deteriorated in 1973.

LeRoy has always had an interest in community affairs, and was an active member of the Jaycees and Men’s Club at Aldersgate Church. He has also belonged to the Indoor Sports Club of Minneapolis and the Disabled Citizens Club. In fact, he was so active that an article appeared in the Dispatch in 1965 that gave his views on issues ranging from bond issues to girlie shows. LeRoy lived with his parents in Brookside; his mother died in 1996 and his father in 2000. Only in 2004 did LeRoy move to a facility that can more closely monitor his health needs. He’s still sharp, still reads the paper, and still writes many letters to the editor (even if some of them are only in his head).

LeRoy DeBoom is an inspiration to those of us who complain of minor aches and pains. He’s living proof that one’s will and determination are stronger than even the most severe physical limitations. And he has certainly lived up to his surname, which is Dutch for “The Tree.”

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This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.