Donald Arthur Price (1900-1974)

From Biographical Wiki

Donald Arthur Price
Denver Don
Born:	29 Oct 1900 Denver, Colorado
Died:	30 May 1974 Petoskey, Michigan
Father:	James Lincoln Price
Mother:	Minnie Pearl Main
Siblings:	Isadora Minerva Price Donald Arthur Price
Spouse:	Dorothy Andrus Crane
Married:	9 Feb 1922, Lansing, Michigan
Children:	Donna Joanne Price Patricia Ellen Price James Douglas Price Dorothy Elaine Price

Autobiography of Donald Arthur Price

Nickname - Don
Chief occupation or profession - Salesman and commercial artist
Date of birth - October 29, 1900
Birthplace - Denver, Colorado
First came to Michigan in 1904, returned in February, 1934
Father’s name - James Lincoln Price
Mother’s maiden name - Minnie Pearl Main
Sister - Isadora Minerva Price
Education - Lansing Public Schools and High School
Married - Dorothy Andrus Crane in Lansing, Michigan - February 9, 1922
Children - Donna, Patricia, James, Dorothy

There are several reasons for my life being molded as it is; love of outdoor living, love of nature, and because of my great love of pioneers, (traditionally, Daniel Boone was a distant relative of mine, so all my life has had a strong influence on me), concentrated influence because of my great love of the West and the Colorado Rockies around me, and Denver (my friends called me “Denver Don,” “The Colorado Kid,” and “Rocky Mountain Red”).

Arranged as near chronologically as possible, the foregoing and following constitute my autobiography.

• Five states lived in:

Colorado, Michigan, California, Florida, Maine

• Employment chronologically

Newspaper carrier - Lansing State Journal - as a boy

Newspaper press room - Lansing State Journal - as a boy

Factory worker (1916 vacation time) - Novo Engine, Lansing Auto-Body

Bank clerk and teller (youngest in Lansing) 1916

L. C. Smith Typewriter repairman

Clerk, Ann Arbor Railroad - Owosso

Insurance Salesman - Owosso

Shiawassee County Credit Bureau - Adjuster - Owosso

Banks worked for in chronological order:

Lansing State Savings Bank

Capital National Bank - Lansing

Security Trust and Savings Bank, Los Angeles, California

Head of savings department - Capital National Bank

All advertising - Capital National Bank

President of “Friendly Service Club” (All employee organization)

Life insurance salesman - John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., Flint, Owosso, Los Angeles

Commercial artist - Hollywood and Los Angeles - Employed by Lee H. Green, Inc., Lee H. Green was chief art instructor

“Otis Art Institute” in Los Angeles

Commercial artist - Self - free lance plus gold mining

Emmet County Graphic - Salesman, editorial, and office

Petoskey Gas Co. - Salesman and meter reader

Petoskey Electric Co. - Salesman

Montgomery Ward - Appliance salesman

Gambles, Petoskey - Appliance salesman

Montgomery Ward department head - Appliances - Tires - Furniture

From first trip to California in 1923, returned to Michigan, then to Miami, Florida.

Real estate broker - (mostly colored)

Keeler, Price, and Williams Realty Corporation owned sub-division in Nassau, B.W.I. as Vice President

Hurricane September 26, 1926 destroyed business - returned to Owosso, Michigan. Moved from California to Bangor, Maine 1932. Worked as salesman and commercial artist. Worked for Bangor Gas Light Company then moved to Harbor Springs where we arrived in February, 1934 coldest winter, 56° below in Bangor and 34° below in Harbor Springs when we arrived.

• Miscellaneous activities of my lifetime:

Built log cabins on gold claim in Trinity National Forest

Promotional activities for Harbor Springs Chamber of Commerce

including development of Scenic Shore Drive

factory sites in Harbor Springs, Harbor development

Speeches for benefit of Townsend Plan (many miles traveled)

Marking Shore Drive routes (arrows and signs) Harbor Springs

Sang for nine years Bay View Assembly Chorus

Sang as boy soprano (early youth in southern Michigan)

Soloist (bass) in northern Michigan

First-prize winning Christmas windows from Garden Club three years

Planned development of garden and yard and designed picture-window kitchen and dining room, plus remodeling house

Did considerable boxing - working out with professionals 1924-1926

Played sand-lot baseball and football as a teenage boy

Grade school track - fastest in lightweight tryouts (never competed in sports only as a cheerleader - seventh grade)

Member of First Presbyterian Church

Choir singer, Petoskey and Harbor Springs, thirty-five years continuous

No military service - too young for World War I, too old for World War II

Member Emmet County Democratic Committee for many years

Secretary of Harbor Springs Chamber of Commerce for two years

Branch Manager, Secretary of State of Michigan in Petoskey for five years

Member many years S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. [Barber Shop Quartet Society of America] (president of Petoskey chapter)

Member of “Centennial Quartet” 1952 Petoskey Centennial consisting of myself, Harold Gidley, A. T. Washburne, Charles Bailey

President of Petoskey Softball League for two years

President of Townsend Club in Harbor Springs

• Notes from Dorothy Price:

I don’t know if Donald was born in Denver because his mother was sickly, they had been married five years but she not well enough to conceive, so they went to Denver for her health, Don's dad had a candy factory there and they spent their weekends camping on Pike’s Peak. She got much better, Isodora was born and two years later Donald came.

When Donald was four years old his Dad sold the business and they came back to Michigan and stayed with Grandpa Main on his farm near Lansing. They stayed there two years until his father had another candy business going and they moved into Lansing. During this period his Dad was an Amateur Boxer, he was also part of a Minstrel troupe, did ballet dancing and soft shoe, played the guitar and had a lovely bass voice.

The family was highly emotional and whenever I asked questions about their father they would start crying and didn’t want to talk about him. He had died four years before we were married but I wasn’t allowed to play any of his records. Donald didn’t want to celebrate Christmas because his Dad wasn’t there to enjoy it. He did die an awful death, he was sick with cancer of the throat two years and he died at home with Donald doing a lot of the nursing of him, he was 17, and took it terribly hard. His mother had a stroke toward the end of his illness and she never recovered totally. Gladys could tell you all about them, she was friends with Isadora all thru that period.

[edit] Obituary from the Petoskey News-Review

Donald A. Price Rites Saturday

Services for Donald A. Price, 73, will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday from the Stone Funeral Home. Rev. Robert Kyser, of the First Presbyterian Church, will officiate and interment will be in Greenwood Cemetery.

He died yesterday at his Petoskey home.

On October 29, 1900 he was born in Denver, Colorado and moved to Lansing at the age of six. He attended Lansing schools and graduated from Lansing High School in 1920.

On February 9, 1922, he married the former Dorothy Crane in Lansing. After a period of moving, the couple settled in Harbor Springs in 1934 and in 1941 they moved to Petoskey where they had resided since.

Mr. Price was a retail salesman for Montgomery Ward and Co. from 1942-1964. He was manager of the Petoskey branch of the Secretary of State’s License Bureau from September, 1964 until 1969 when he retired.

He was active in the Democratic Party in Emmet county; was president of the Petoskey Softball League and was active in barbershop quartets for many years. For 31 years he was an active member of the choir of the First Presbyterian Church. For two years he served as secretary of the Harbor Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Besides his wife, he is survived by three daughters, Mrs. Leslie (Donna) Heinz, of Harbor Springs, Mrs. John (Pat) Duvernay and Mrs. Robert (Dorothy) Dennis, of Petoskey; a son, James Price, of Los Gatos, Calif; 12 grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; 11 great grandchildren; 13 great step-grandchildren and a sister, Mrs. Frank (Isadora) Sallows, of Harbor Springs.

[edit] Sources

• Autobiographical letter to Joanne M. Heinz Howse.

• Obituary from Petoskey News-Review

• 1920 Federal Census Lansing, Ingham, Michigan, Ward 4, 18 Jan 1920, ED 97 N. Washington Ave.

Main, Mabel, head, own home mort., female, white, 72, single, MI, NY, OH, teacher public school

Price, Minnie P., sister, female, white, 51, Widow, MI, NY, OH

, Isadora M., niece, female, white, 20, single, CO, MI, MI

, R. Donald A., nephew, male, white, 19, single, CO, IN, MI

• 1930 Federal Census, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California Ward 10 3 April 1930 Sunset, La Vita Terrace #1513 #73 #87

Price, Donald, head rent, $50.00, male, white, 29, married, CO, Iowa, MI, Proprietor Art Shop

, Dorothy, wife, female, white, 28, married, OH, OH, OH

, Donna, daughter, female, white, 7, single, MI, OH, NY

, Patricia, daughter, female, white, 4, single, FL, OH, NY

, James, son, white, male, 1 and 2/12, single, CA, OH, NY

Currie, Garfield, Lodger, male, white, 29, married 28, MI, PA, PA, commercial artist

, Phanalice, lodger, female, white, 22, married 21, Conn, Conn, Canada-French

• Death: Emmet County, Michigan, Vital Records Search, Deaths:

PRICE, Donald

Date: 5/30/1974

Liber: 1974

Folio: P119

Place of Death: Petoskey, Michigan

• Burial: Greenwood Cemetery Index, Petoskey, Michigan:

Price, Donald A.

Age: 73

Born: 10/29/1900

Died: 05/30/1974

Burial: 06/01/1974

Cemetery: Greenwood at Petoskey

Obit: Petoskey News Review 05/31/1974

Stone Funeral Home at Petoskey

Lot: H -36-3