Obituary of Franklin Griswald Leland

Chief Master Sergeant Franklin Leland passed away July 4, 2006, eight short days short of his 90th birthday. He was born July 12, 1916 in Kingston, PA to Joseph and Josephine Lelakowski. Franklin was a thirty-year veteran of the US Air Force, enlisting in 1939. He saw action in the South Pacific during WWII. The majority of his Air Force career was in Germany and Washington State. He retired in 1970 as the chief aircraft mechanic for the 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, which was stationed at McChord AFB. He retired from the US Postal Service in 1981. In 1955 he married his wife of 52 years, Cecilie in Munich Germany. He is survived by his wife; son, Robert, daughter-in-law, Rachelle and step-grandson, Joshua Murphy all of Tumwater. Step-granddaughter Brianna Murphy is a student at Montana St. University-Bozeman. Franklin’s passion in life was fishing. Be it salmon in the ocean or steelhead in the rivers, if he wasn’t working he was fishing. There are many wonderful memories of “who’ll get the largest fish” competition between family members. A committal service will be held at 1:15 p.m., Wednesday, July 19th at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.