(died 5 Feb. 1987), driver. (Missouri) Born probably in Alexandria, GC, where he spent most of his life. He was commonly called Missouri, though he disliked the name. Parents: Paul Lauzon, Sr., and his wife Elizabeth Grant. He attended local schools. He was presumably the Leonard Lauzon of Alexandria who in 1929 was tried and acquitted on a charge of criminal negligence arising out of a truck accident in which another Alexandrian was killed. (Cornwall Standard 18 April & 2 May 1929, Cornwall Freeholder 8 & 15 May 1929) In World War II, he was a driver in the Canadian armed forces. Later, as an employee of the Shepherd brothers, he was a school bus driver over many years, including the 1950s and 1960s, transporting students between their homes and Alexandria High School (renamed Glengarrry District High School in mid-1950s). In between bus routes, he was a familiar figure on the streets of Alexandria. A short, thickset little man, oldish-looking by the 1950s, he continued the ancient tradition of Alexandria street characters. Missouri had an encyclopedic knowledge, of a kind much valued among the Glengarrians, of who was related to whom. When country people would come by packed carloads to Alexandria, bringing their non-car owning neighbours or relatives with them to town to share in their shopping expeditions, Missouri from his position on the streets would keep the various hurrying members of these little parties informed of where among the shops the others had been last seen. He was proud of his good driving, and is said to have retired as a bus driver when a minor accident reminded him that time was catching up with him. No doubt he did odd jobs to help make ends meet; certainly he was employed in this way by the aging Ethel Ostrom, when she was struggling to keep her house going. In his last years he was blind. He never married. Altogether, he was one of the best-known GC residents of his time. In a high school where teaching was of a high quality, Missouri, who was skilled in the non-competitive arts of life, and was an expert in the challenges of being a human being, may be considered to have had a teaching function too, and a role which only the daring would say was negligible. Roman Catholic. He is buried in St. Finnan’s cemetery.

Glengarry News 11 Feb. 1987 * personal knowledge * marriage of his parents, GN 6 Sept. 1894 * death of another Leonard Lauzon, 35, Lancaster (GC) native, Cornwall paper mill employee, wounded veteran of SDG Highlanders, who died day his son was born Standard Freeholder 30 July 1946