The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Harvey trailblazer now has headstone
A remarkable gesture has reached its desired goal.
Perry state track and field champion Leah King, through her family’s foundation, has raised the funds necessary to give 1930’s Harvey trailblazer Lentie Bolden a headstone for his previously unmarked grave at Evergreen Cemetery in Painesville.
On July 4, The NewsHerald published a story on Bolden, the Red Raiders football standout who was described in the era more for his African-American ethnicity than for his athletic prowess.
Bolden would have graduated from Harvey in 1938, but did not return for his senior year after suffering an eye injury in a car crash July 23, 1937, that claimed the life of the driver of the car in which he was a passenger.
Bolden died in 1951 at the age of 32.
After reading the story over the summer on Bolden, King initiated a fundraising effort for the $3,000 to give Bolden a headstone.
The headstone has been placed at Evergreen Cemetery in Division 28 on Lot 123, Grave 726B in the northeast corner of the grounds.
On the front is Bolden’s full name — Corinthus Lentie Bolden — along with his date of birth and death, a football and a cross.
On the back is the inscription, “Known as a trailblazer and standout, you thrilled a community with talent and grace. Your story will always be remembered, never forgotten.”