Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Eisert helps in celebrating military service
BELLA VISTA — Leonard Eisert moved to Bella Vista more than three decades ago and has been an active member of the community since.
Eisert served three years in the Air Force just after World War II and came to Bella Vista with a great deal of appreciation for military service.
Eisert was involved with the construction of the Veterans Wall of Honor, a collaborative effort between the Veterans Council of Northwest Arkansas — with which he continues to work — and American Legion post.
The project was finished in 2004 after several Bella Vistans put in untold hours of work, and an expansion for the monument, to be completed in stages, was approved by the Bella Vista Planning Commission Aug. 10.
Eisert said he’s extremely proud of his work on this monument and he believes it may be the only one in the country that honors veterans all the way from the revolutionary war to current conflicts.
“We’re unique,” he said. Before all that, Eisert was a foster child up in Minnesota. He grew up across a few different homes, often working for the families that took him in and, in the case of the last household, working to pay room and board until he finished high school.
He was drafted into military service in 1946, though he was allowed to finish high school first. After graduating, Eisert said, he immediately signed up for the Air Force.
“I got free room and board, you know? It was kind of nice for me,” he said with a chuckle.
After about a year-anda-half of training, including engine and mechanic courses in Biloxi, Miss., Eisert said he served in a group of about 10 to 12 individuals in Kansas who provided training on different components for a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber. Eisert handled instruments and each other member trained people on different aspects of the plane.
Outside his duties, Eisert said he really enjoyed dancing.
During a portion of his training in Chanute Field, Ill., Eisert said he would hitch a ride to nearby Chicago on the weekends to go dancing at the Aragon Ballroom — where he learned to dance — or, occasionally, go watch the White Sox or Cubs play.
Eisert said he kept dancing, even after his three years in the service were finished, and in 1954 he met his wife, LaVerne, at the Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee.
They were married for 64 years and had two children, both of whom are doing very well today, he said.
She died in 2019 but left him with many wonderful memories, he said.
He attended the University of Wisconsin for four years with his GI Bill, then tried out a few occupations before getting hired as a sales representative with Texaco, a job he held for 30 years.
He worked out of his home and drove a company car, he said.
“It was just like being my own boss,” he said.
Eisert said he moved here, in part, because he liked the swimming pools on offer — though the now-defunct pool near Lake Bella Vista, on the lot where the Wall of Honor is expected to expand, was extremely cold.
He still swims frequently, he said, and he’s not planning to move again.
“I’ve enjoyed my life,” Eisert said. “I’m enjoying my last few years here.”