LEROY D. BAIN SERVES HIS COUNTRY
LeRoy D. Bain, Armed Forces of the United States
Roy spoke to a Navy recruiter at school. His first question was, "Can you swim?" Roy's response was, "Don't you have any boats?" The class thought it was funny.
Roy graduated from West High School in 1956 and in 1957. He joined the 653rd Field Artillery Observation Battalion of the Utah National Guard. Roy had to go six months active duty. Roy went t
Roy-1956 Utah National Guard
Every recruit got their head shaved and was issued uniforms to wear. You soon learned "hurry-up and wait" was an every day occurrence in the army.
One day while they were being processed-in, most of the guys were sitting in the shade waiting for something when a rather big kid from another unit began picking on them, one at a time. He came down the row calling names and
When he got to Roy, he stood up. He got in Roy's face and shouted, "Do you want to back me up?" Roy said in a shaky voice,
"Why should I back you up? You're an 'asshole!"
He grinned, turned and walked away. Roy was a very shaky hero.
The guy sitting next to Roy, Alan Emery, became Roy's good army buddy. Alan had played football at BYU. He said if you hadn't stood up he was going to. Mistakenly, from
ROY AND JEAN ARE INVITED TO THE WHITE HOUSE
A VISIT WITH THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!
In 1980, as members of a Republican Congressional Committee, Roy and Dick Valentine arranged a trip to Washington, DC to attend President Ronald Reagan's Inauguration.
They arrived in DC, on a Saturday. The next day was the first gala party with the Reagan's in attendance. Roy was relaxing in the bath tub when he heard Jean crying. The reason for her sadness was the fact that none of the very expensive beaded formal dresses fit her. Roy got out of the tub and told her not to worry that he would get them altered...yeah right, on a Saturday night in a strange town? Roy got on the phone, lucked-out and found a very nice lady who said she could help. They went to her shop in downtown DC. At first, they were worried. Her one room shop was a mess with pieces of scrap material all over the floor. Turned out she did the alterations for Garfinckels Department Store. She worked through the night and solved the problem.
There were nine major Inaugural Balls. They went to the one at Kennedy Center along with other people from California. Most of the others were movie stars, Bob Hope, Rich Little, and such. The place was so crowded they decided to leave before Reagan's showed up, so they could get into a restaurant early. As they were going out of the center, General Omar Bradley was being wheeled in, in his wheelchair, Roy took a great close-up picture. Unfortunately, Roy had a new camera and none of the pictures came out. When they reached the front of the building, the caravan of limos carrying the Reagan's pulled up. They only caught a glimpse of the President and Nancy.
Jean and Roy went to Jean Paul Italian Restaurant. Their table was in the center of this very crowded Italian restaurant and in the middle of the meal everyone seated at the other table began to sing. Turns out they were in the middle of a portion of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They had been listening to the live music presented by a three-piece Italian operatic group and decided to sing for them as a way of saying thank you. Talk about a stereo, Wow!
Roy and Jean went back to Washington two more times during the Reagan era. They went to DC in 1981, one month after the President had been shot by John Hinckley so the White House was cancelled on that trip.
DEAR MR. BAIN: "YOUR ROLE IN THE SUMMER JOB CAMPAIGN IS THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL..." SINCERELY, RONALD REAGAN GOVErNOR
In mid June of 1968, Roy received a letter from Governor Ronald Reagan asking Roy to create jobs for kids so that the idleness did not become a way of life. And at the same time Roy was put out of business by the city council.
Governor Ronald Reagan went to Riverside and met Roy. As you can see Roy's friend, Dick didn't take a very good picture. He cut the top of Governor Reagan's head off.
ROY BAIN HAS LUNCH WITH IRV ATKINS & A.C. LYLES
In 1983, Irv Atkins invited Roy to lunch with A.C. Lyles. A.C. ran Paramount Pictures for many years. He produced movies starring James Cagney and produced Rawhide for TV starring Clint Eastwood. A.C. is also responsible for producing movies starring Ronald Reagan.
A.C. was one of Reagan's best friends. Roy showed A.C. the letter he received in 1973 from Governor Reagan returning what some believe could have been his first political contribution to run for the presidency of United States.