A life story in a three-ring binder; 82-year-old Springfield man listened to wife and kids

• This article is part of our "More to the Story" series.
• Last month, we invited readers to share with us your family's treasured news clips.
• Dozens of you came to the Library Center to talk to our reporters.

Leslie Jasper Mace carries his life story in a three-ring binder. 

He has neatly compiled documents, news stories and recollections from his 82 years of living. Virginia, his wife of 61 years, and their two children had encouraged him to do this.

He pops the rings open and removes a story that ran in the Sunday News & Leader on May 13, 1962. 

The headline reads: "Community Training School Needs More Students, More Jobs to Do."

Mace, of Springfield, is not mentioned by name in the story. But he helped keep the school afloat.

The news story discussed the plight of the Community Training School, which provided jobs to people with mental and physical disabilities. 

The school was run by Agnes Gattis and James Richey. At the time, it helped about 12 people — ages 18 to 35 —  in a residential building at 1624 N. Grant Ave.

Part of it reads:

"Richey, who is a former school teacher, said the two main problems that now face the school are getting more trainees and obtaining work for them to do."

The story stated that the trainees were sorting surplus nuts and bolts for a "local merchant."

Mace was the local merchant. He and his father owned Surplus Auto Parts Inc., 2657 W. College Road.

They bought buckets of nuts, bolts and washers — of all sizes — that came straight off the floors of car manufacturing plants.

One day, Mace said, Richey asked how much he would pay the trainees to sort the nuts and bolts — which is something the Maces had been doing themselves.

"We can pay you a nickel a pound," Mace said.  

They struck a deal and, as a result, Mace helped keep the school afloat.

In the story of his life, Mace wrote the following:

"Mr. Richey first operated out of his kitchen ... After a few years, it grew and the State of Missouri passed legislation authorizing Missouri State Training Schools.

"... It became a separate organization named Springfield Sheltered Workshop, and it employs over 200 developmentally disabled individuals."

"We were his first paying customers, and as the years went on we had them sort and package nuts, washers, bolts and other items that they could process more economically that we could."

Over the years, Mace said, he has served on the sheltered workshop's board of directors.

Mace thumbs through his life story to a story with the headline: "Sinking of a Japanese 2-man (suicide) submarine, Dec. 24, 1942."

It was written by Mace. He was 7 years old when he witnessed U.S. warplanes destroy a two-man Japanese suicide submarine during World War II. It occurred a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Mace wrote:

"My namesake uncle, Leslie Bryan Mace, lived on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean around Hermosa Beach, California. At that time, we lived in the Keystone area, in what is now Carson, California.

"On Christmas Eve morning, he called and said that we needed to get up there as soon as we could. I would say it was about 15 to 20 minutes from where we lived.

"When we arrived at his house, we could see a two-man Japanese submarine in the bay trying to get back into the ocean. There were some B-25 bomber planes flying over his house, dropping bombs trying to hit the sub.

"They were flying so low that the windows and doors rattled loudly and it seemed that if we stood on the roof of his house we could touch the bottom of the planes as they flew over.

"In about four or five passes of the planes, a bomb finally hit the sub and there was a geyser of water jumping 20 to 30 feet in the air. When it was over, the sub looked like a pretzel.  

"The purpose of these two-man submarines was to load them up with dynamite and ram a dock so that ships would be unable to dock, load or unload."

His binder also includes this boyhood memory:

"I have a picture of a 1948 British MG that I had carved from balsa wood and won first place at the Ozark Empire Fair, in about 1950. When I went to pick it up, there was a blue ribbon — but no MG."