Paul William Liles Was A 21st Century Man

When Men Were Really Men!

Ahead Of His Time;

As you know, Dad was born in 1906 in McRae Arkansas... educated to the 5th grade, Dad was an amazing person.  Mathematical wizard, mechanical genius, and more importantly... a concerned person about people!   But why, "Ahead of his time???"

Woman's Lib

Dad was 't frightened of his position.  It was a matter of self confidence.  He would not have joined the bra-burners but he saw everyone as equal in spite of color or in himself??  He supported Mom in anything she wanted to do... they worked side by side in projects around the home.  Dad made the first female store manager in the dime store chain because she was good... NOT because she was female!

People

Dad was a supporter of people... sure he had his biases but they were pretty much assigned to entire groups, not individuals.   I remember in 1950's Dad arguing with is boss to put a women and a Negro as managers of the dime stores.... his argument was right on... they could do the job better than any other candidates.

The Red Head

Number five store was on La Cienega between Venice and Pico. It was a small store and Dad decided to put a lady in charge of the store. I cannot remember her name but she was tall and had bright red hair! She did a great job and like the other managers, she unloaded and unpacked the shipments to her store just like the guys!  She was single and I think she had a child but memory is failing me after 70+ years on the planet!

Dad Left Us Thanksgiving 1970

He left this life with hundreds of people he called friends... we had no idea except at the service in Inglewood, California, there were literally hundred's of people who he met in his career with Ralph's 5, 10, and 25 Cent stores.    The church was overflowing and people stood outside just listening to the service.

Fading Memories

My memory is fading but I remember Ly... the Negro gentlemen.  Smart, funny, and an all around super guy!  I remember once he came to visit Mom and Dad and did the neighbors talk!!! Dad's response was, "So What!!... Ly is our friend".  Ly passed away in the late 1960's and Mom, Dad, and I went to the funeral outside of Fresno, California..... we were the only white folk there... but I will always remember his parents greeting by parents.. Dad said when you are friends and work together, color is irrelevant!  He was right! People are people!


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Quotes About Dad

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.  ~Clarence Budington Kelland

A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.  ~Author Unknown

Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name.  ~William Wordsworth

Love and fear.  Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other.  ~Joseph Joubert

One father is more than a hundred Schoolemasters.  ~George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640

Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!  ~Lydia M. Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836

Henry James once defined life as that predicament which precedes death, and certainly nobody owes you a debt of honor or gratitude for getting him into that predicament.  But a child does owe his father a debt, if Dad, having gotten him into this peck of trouble, takes off his coat and buckles down to the job of showing his son how best to crash through it.  ~Clarence Budington Kelland