Lyle Kincaid celebrates 100th birthday years ago
Lyle Kinkaid, Marion, celebrated his 100th birthday Sunday.
Family members said it was a longtime ambition for Kinkaid to reach this milestone. His grandchildren all remember him talking about celebrating his 100th birthday, even when they were children.
Present or sending greetings were his four grandchildren, Doe Ann Hague, Tonny DelVecchio, and Tina Partridge, all of Peabody, Lonny DelVecchio of Texarkana, Texas; 10 great-grandchildren; and friends and fellow residents at St. Luke.
Kinkaid was born in Illinois and grew up in Ames. In his memoirs, he recalled traveling regularly by horse and wagon.
In addition to his farm chores, Kinkaid helped his stepfather hunt and trap furbearers to provide extra money for the family.
"One year I made $14," he recalled. "I was very proud as back then that was quite a bit of money."
He met and married Ann Margaret Maish Nov. 6, 1926. Their only child, Phyllis, was born Feb. 5, 1935. She died in 1998.
During the Depression, the family moved to Concordia, where Kinkaid took a seven-days-a-week job as a bellhop at a local hotel.
In 1946 the family moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where Kinkaid worked as a bellman, eventually being hired at the elite Westward-Ho. He met numerous celebrities, including Mickey Rooney and Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Kinkaids returned to Kansas in 1970 to be closer to their daughter and grandchildren. They lived in Newton until Ann Margaret died in 1981. He lived with family and in various retirement facilities, staying active writing poetry and painting.
