Individual Details

Printed in the Benkelman, NE Post, February 1956
Leon Llewellyn Hines
Leon L. Hines was laid at rest in the Benkelman cemetery on Friday afternoon after funeral services at the Methodist church with Rev. R. W. Sandsted in charge. George Hastings, an attorney from Grant, Nebraska, read the obituary. Mrs. Anna Benge was the organist and soloists were Mrs. Dorothy Woodworth and Ross D. Druliner, Jr.
Casket bearers were Mason Jones, Harold Hall, Alvin Lorance, Harold Knoles, Kenneth Buffington and George Robertson. Honorary pallbearers were John C. Ough, H. L. Anderson, Miles Jones, Lee Clegg, Ned Tecker, J. H. A. Peck, G. A. Morehouse, Norval Diehl, John J. Kitt and George Hoffmeister.
The graveside services were conducted by Justice Lodge No. 180 AF&AM with W. C. Edwards, WM. The service was arranged by the Laughlin Funeral Home.
Leon Llewellyn Hines, son of David G. Hines and Cordelia G. Smith was born at Imperial, Nebr., on the 25th day of September, 1891. He departed this life at Benkelman, Nebraska, on the 14th day of February, 1956, at the age of 64 years, four months and 19 days. His infancy was spent in the village of Imperial with his parents where his father was engaged in mercantile business.
At the age of six years the family moved to Haigler, Nebraska, remaining there until the year 1901. At that time the family moved to Benkelman, Nebraska when his father established a law office in the county seat of Dundy county. The early formative years of his life were spent in attending the public schools of Benkelman. After finishing the courses provided in his home town, he attended high school at McCook, Nebraska, from which he was graduated in 1908.
The early years of his youth were spent in the tradition of the law. His father maintained an office in Benkelman and for 16 years served as county attorney of his county. Possessed of strong intellectual capacities and coupled with an intense desire for higher education, Leon then entered the University of Nebraska. He combined the study of the arts and sciences with the law. He was graduated in 1915. Immediately following his graduation he was admitted to practice law in Nebraska, and subsequently in the federal courts and before the Treasury Department of the United States.
His father's extensive business interests and his law practice and the appeal of his home community drew him back to Benkelman. In this community he lived and devoted his life.
Mr. Hines was a man of great versatility and of many interests. He matched his professional career with numerous business and financial enterprises. Early in his career he successfully operated theaters in Benkelman, Stratton and Haigler. At the time of his death he was engaged in the livestock industry and had acquired extensive real estate properties which he managed and operated.
For a period of more than forty years Mr. Hines continued without interruption in the practice of the legal profession. He served as county attorney from 1926 to 1930. In the practice of law he was a vigilant and successful advocate, always respected by his adversaries and always held in the highest esteem by his brothers at the bar. He possessed an unusual ability to penetrate legal propositions and once he had determined upon his solution of a question he pressed his position with great skill and energy. He had an unerring sense of justice. When he undertook the representation of a client he served him with fidelity, skill and determination. He was a tireless worker; zealously he followed the practice of law not only to serve his clients but to establish and maintain justice. Because of his wide business experience, he represented clients interested in oil and gas, mining and water rights and irrigation. His professional life led him into the fields of corporate law, real property and probate. To the end of his career he maintained an unflagging concern for the professional matters entrusted to him and throughout his career he displayed the highest degree of professional competence.
Among the many interests of this versatile man was his concern for the political issues of his time. He believed in political parties as the means of crystallizing public opinion. For himself he was not interested in the honors of public office though he could have had them for the asking. Invariably he refused to stand for public office. On one occasion he accepted the appointment by the governor to the office of state senator to complete the term for the years 1935 and 1936. His innate sense of modesty led him to refrain from seeking political honors. He preferred to spend his life among his own people in his chosen profession. But his political views were known. He had no hesitancy in expressing his opinions and he did so with vision and with clarity.
An outstanding achievement of his professional career was in the field of public service. He was largely instrumental in developing the rural electrification program in an area which covered parts of three states. He fought for low cost public power. By sheer force of his leadership he initiated the program of rural electrification and brought to thousands of people the benefits of low cost energy. He was the organizer and project attorney of three separate projects in wide areas of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado.
Without reservation. he gave of his time, his talents, his money and his leadership in local and community enterprises which he recognized to be for the good of all. Typical of him was his leadership in the March of Dimes. Sympathetic with suffering children, he served for many years as chairman of the March of Dimes in his community. He organized the local chapter and was its leader in many campaigns for funds. He gave his services as chairman of the Dundy county Red Cross chapter and continued in that capacity for several years.
He was baptized in the faith of the Methodist church and remained a member of it to the time of his death.
In the midst of this busy life with its wide interests and its far-flung activities, he met every occasion with a fund of humor and good will; he carried no malice in his heart. He used people. He found pleasure in work and in all of life. He lightened the burden for himself and all about him with his smile, his chuckle and his friendly greeting. His personality endeared him to all who knew him. In his student days he enjoyed a wide acquaintance and was popular among his friends. He was a member of Kappa Sigma social fraternity and in the law college he joined Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.
He was a member of Justice Lodge No. 180 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
On June 20, 1917, he was married to Keturah E. Sipe at Bartley, Nebraska. To this union was born one son, Leon Clifford, who continues in the family tradition, the practice of law in Benkelman, and who is now serving as county attorney of Dundy county as the father and grandfather had done before him.
Twin daughters preceded him in death. Mr. Hines is survived by his wife, Keturah E., his son Leon Clifford, his daughter-in-law Anne, three grandchildren Elizabeth Susan, Patricia Ann, and Barbara Ellen; two sisters, Mrs. Mary Bauer of Benkelman and Mrs. Eunice Hjelte of Kirkland, Wash.; an aunt, Mrs. Mabelle Fisk of Benkelman, and a host of friends who will always remember him as a loving husband, a kind and understanding father, a generous neighbor and an outstanding citizen.

Birth	25 Sep 1891	Imperial, Chase County, Nebraska
Census (family)-shared	1 Jun 1900	(David Green Hines and Cordelia Goodrich Smith) Blaine Precinct, Dundy County, Nebraska
Census (family)-shared	23 Apr 1910	(David Green Hines and Cordelia Goodrich Smith) Benkelman, Dundy County, Nebraska
Marriage	20 Jun 1917	Bartley, Red Willow County, Nebraska - Keturah Ellen Sipe
Census (family)	22 Jan 1920	Benkelman, Dundy County, Nebraska - Keturah Ellen Sipe
Census (family)	9 Apr 1930	Benkelman, Dundy County, Nebraska - Keturah Ellen Sipe
Census (family)	15 Apr 1940	Benkelman, Dundy County, Nebraska - Keturah Ellen Sipe
Death	14 Feb 1956
Burial		Benkelman Cemetery, Dundy County, Nebraska

Spouse	Keturah Ellen Sipe (1894 - 1982)
Child	Leon Clifford Hines (1922 - 1997)
Child	infant daughter Hines (1933 - 1933)
Child	Marjorie Ann Hines (1933 - 1933)

Father	David Green Hines (1860 - 1928)
Mother	Cordelia Goodrich Smith (1867 - 1953)
Sibling	Wayne S. Hines (1889 - 1890)
Sibling	Eunice Emily Hines (1898 - 1973)
Sibling	Mary Cordelia Hines (1902 - 1989)

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