LEFAVOR, Willis
LEFAVOR, Willis Mitchell (1878-1973)[SS#551-07-3821], born in Maine April 5, 1878, he completed the 8th grade. By the 1910 census (age 32) he had became a merchant, newspaper editor, printer, realtor and successful businessman at Avalon, Santa Catalina Island. He was also a member of the Santa Catalina Island Twenty-Five Year Club.
According to his World War I Draft Registration card, he was 5 ft. 7-¾ inches tall with brown hair and gray-green eyes.
Mr. Lefavor, businessman turned newspaper editor, was one of the major players in Avalon’s economic status. Any acts of the “Island Company” to restrict trade was not taken well by him and was clearly shown through his newspaper. His “Wireless” newspaper came out—the world’s first newspaper where its news was provided primarily over the new “wireless” device. It was first published on March 25, 1903 and after a number of temporary starts and stops, became a “regular weekly newspaper” in 1905. The “wireless station” was on the flat area, just down from the “Zane Grey,” overlooking the “Casino,” and published at the “Pitman-Dennis Bldg.,” on the corner where “Leo’s Drug Store” now presides. It was conveniently near Mr. Lefavor’s other business interests. Lefavor also had a “Department Store,” a “Novelty Shop,” a “Confectionery Shop,” and even a “Real Estate” office.
After the Company's embarrassment of losing to the “Freeholders” their Pier and “closed harbor” status, the “Island Company” certainly didn’t need Avalon’s only newspaper to constantly print opposing views. They asked Ernest Windle, an Englishman, to come to Avalon and start a paper to reflect the news more from the “Island Company’s” perspective and hopefully run the “Wireless” out of business.
Willis M. Lefavor (at age 23) = [c. 1901] Anna M. Lefavor (born in Germany; immigrated in 1884)
- The couple was living in Avalon in 1910 (census) on Metropole Avenue in the Hotel Hermansen.
- The couple was still living in Avalon in 1920 (census) on Sumner Avenue.
- The couple was still living in Avalon in 1930 (census) in a house they owned on Metropole Ave.
- By the 1940 census, Willis Lefavor is not listed as an Avalon resident. He is listed as a married printer living in San Bernardino, CA.
Willis Lefavor's 1942 draft registration card lists his resident as Arrowhead Springs, California.
Willis M. Lefavor died at age 94 in January 1973. He is buried in Fred Hunter's Hollywood Memorial Garden, Hollywood, Florida.
In the News~
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