Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004 | 9:12 a.m.
Las Vegas residents of the 1950s so trusted dry cleaning delivery man Woodruff "Woody" Leavitt that they gave him duplicates of their house keys so he could get into their homes when they were out and hang the freshly-pressed apparel in their closets.
One of his daughters recalled that Leavitt would go to work at Society Cleaners with as many as 200 house keys hanging from his key ring.
"Daddy was an honest, clean, good man who people really trusted," said Nola Cox, the oldest of Leavitt's six children. "And although he never had much money in his lifetime, he was always there to help someone in need."
Leavitt, a member of the construction crew that built the first road across the Mormon Mesa 80 years ago and one of the oldest living people born in Clark County, died Sunday at a retirement home in St. George, Utah. He was 100.
Services will be 11 a.m. Friday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 13th Ward Chapel in St. George. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. at the chapel. Burial will be at 2 p.m. in the Mesquite City Cemetery.
"Daddy never saw the historic significance of his life -- he even had trouble accepting that he had turned 100," Cox said.
"I'd say to him, 'Daddy, imagine, you are are 100 years old,' and he'd say, 'You're kidding me.' I'd tell him, 'You were born in 1904 and this is 2004,' but he still couldn't make himself accept that he was 100. He was young at heart."
Leavitt may have been the oldest living Clark County-born person at the time of his death. He was born March 12, 1904, in Mesquite 14 months before Las Vegas was founded.
The vast majority of Nevada's population in the early 20th century was in the northern portion of the state.
Genealogy records kept by the LDS church show that Leavitt was 6 years old at the time of the 1910 U.S. Census. The LDS Family History Center in Las Vegas says Leavitt at that time lived in Mesquite with his father, Joseph, mother, Luna, and seven siblings.
After graduating from Virgin Valley High School, Leavitt worked for the Dodge Construction Co. in Fallon, driving a horse-drawn earth mover to build roads, including the one at the Mormon Mesa, 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Leavitt came to Las Vegas in 1923, the year he married his first wife, Zelma.
He became a farmer in Mesquite during the Depression and returned to Las Vegas in 1940 as a foreman for the National Ice Co., routing trucks that delivered large blocks of ice for residential ice boxes.
Leavitt worked for Society Cleaners in downtown Las Vegas from the 1950s until his retirement in 1972.
After retiring, Leavitt wrote poetry, went on a Mormon mission to Tennessee and did volunteer work in the Las Vegas and St. George temples until he was 97.
In a March 12 Sun story marking his 100th birthday, Leavitt attributed his longevity to clean living and staying mentally active. He neither smoked nor drank alcohol.
Leavitt's wife of 50 years died in 1973. Three years later, he married the former Rema Freeman, who died last year. Leavitt will be buried in a plot with his first wife, Zelma.
In addition to his daughter, Leavitt is survived by Nola's husband David Cox; three sons, Norman Leavitt and his wife, Jeneal, Howard Leavitt and his wife, Carol, and Darwin Leavitt and his wife, Beverly; another daughter, Ada Ann Brooks; 23 grandchildren; 48 great-grandchildren; and 19 great-great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by a daughter, Carma Berkheimer, and one great-great-granddaughter.
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