Cincinnati Peacemakers (and John Leininger's Death)

The passing of John Leininger has certainly awakened my memories of the active and courageous peace community in Cincinnati in the early 1970's. I mentioned some of the Peacemakers that John would have known and worked with in the previous blog posting. Here are some others that I remember: Andy Meyer, Joan Levy, Denny Ryan, Richard Gale, Bonnie Tomkins, Joel Stephens, Dick Crowley--and all the other folks who either lived in or often visited the Mansfield House Community and the neighborhing Orchard Street house (where I lived, along with Chris Cotter, Anne and Clare Weinkam, Peggy Scherer, and Jack Shereda). Henry Scott was for a while at the Bromley's in Gano, Ohio, and at other times in the Over-the-Rhine area. There were many others who were in and out: Maggie Jones, the local VISTA workers (Dick Crowley, John Thornton, and many others), some folks from the Bluffton College Mennonite service group, some local organizres and social workers. Jim Tarbell was occasionally there, as were some local artists. It was a dynamic, ever-changing, fantastically interesting gathering of people. Many Peacemakers, Catholic Workers, and Quakers from out of town came through from time to time. They were all offered hospitality--a place to stay and food to eat, without a question being asked. I wish I could express the flavor of this time and place better than I have. It's something that won't ever happen again in exactly that way.

The Death of Peacemaker John Leininger

Yesterday I received the shocking news that an old friend and fellow Peacemaker, John Leininger,  has died from an aggressive cancer diagnosed just weeks ago. Left behind is Alice Ann Carpenter, his partner for some 38 years, step-children Maureen and Jenny, grandchildren Jocelyn, Alaina, and Devlin, sons-in-law Chris and Donal, and so many other relatives and friends.

John was a courageous and active peacemaker and will be memorialized later this summer at a Cincinnati Unitarian church.
I first met John around 1973 at Peacemaker "foldings" (where the Peacemaker newsletter was folded and mailed) at the home of Marion and Ernest Bromley in Gano, Ohio. These foldings later moved to Alice Ann and John's home in the North Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati.

I have wonderful memories of these Peacemaker foldings (and other activities like the conferences and "gatherings").  A lot of courageous people came to these foldings: Greg Haas, John Luginbill, Kenny Przybylski, Mary Alice Shepherd, Chuck Matthei, Peggy Scherer, Chris Cotter, Annie Weinkam . . . .[I'll mention more people in further postings].

Here is a website that John Leininger and Alice Ann Carpenter maintained for their crime and murder mystery books business: http://gravematters.com/ Photos of John and Alice Ann can be found at that site.