Obituary: Typewriter shop owner Price dies

Thursday, March 15, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

Ken Price believed that, even in this high-tech, computer-dominated age, the dependable, old-fashioned typewriter would never die.

Price was computer literate -- he used a computer in his seven-decades-old business, Price Business Equipment Inc. -- but refused to sell them. He focused on a top-notch typewriter sales and repair operation.

John "Kenny" Price, who operated Price Business Equipment since the 1950s, died March 3 of heart failure at Sunrise Hospital Medical Center. He was 77.

"He figured if all the new office supply businesses that came to town were into computer sales, he would stick with what he knew best," his sister, Patricia "Pat" Beggerly, said. "Kenny grew up with typewriters and typewriters were a part of him."

Price Business Equipment opened briefly on Monday for patrons to pick up the typewriters they had left for servicing or repair. Beggerly said the future of the business is uncertain.

Price, who lived in Las Vegas 71 years, operated his small business at five locations over the last half century.

Price's father, Jack Price, founded an office supply business in Las Vegas in 1929, but the business was sold in 1946 after his death, shortly after Ken Price returned from World War II.

Ken Price worked in another Las Vegas typewriter shop until 1951, when he revived the family business and operated it at three locations.

Born March 26, 1923, in Orange County, Calif., Price was the eldest of four children of Jack Price and the former Edith Tackett. The family moved to Las Vegas when Ken was 7. He attended the old Fifth Street Grammar School, and graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1942. He joined the Army and served at Guadalcanal and New Caledonia.

As a local businessman, Price was resourceful. As some typewriter replacement parts became scarce, he maintained a large stock of repair parts by taking them from older model typewriters that could no longer be saved.

Price counted among his regular customers Nellis Air Force Base, the Nevada Test Site and major Strip hotels. Newspaper reporters from across the country in the 1970s and '80s would bang out stories of major championship fights on Price's typewriters that were leased to Caesars Palace.

Price was a former member of the Jaycees and Elks and a member of Masonic Lodge 32.

In addition to his sister, Price is survived by his wife, Ledenila Price of Las Vegas; a daughter, Shebon Dominguez of El Paso, Texas; two other sisters, Jeanne Herman and Jacqueline May, both of Las Vegas; and one grandchild. He was preceded in death by his son, John Russell Price.

Services were held at Palm Valley View Memorial Park. Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave., handled the arrangements.