Edward Vincent Lenihan Jr.

Ed was born September 14th, 1928, at Mercy Hospital in Denver Colorado to parents Edward Vincent Lenihan Sr and Madelyn Ruby Lenihan (Sheridan). Ed’s Grandparents, Michael Lenihan and Mary Quinn, had immigrated to the US from Cork County Ireland and Perth, Ontario Canada, respectively, in the 1890’s. After a stint in Iowa, the family moved once more and put down permanent roots in Denver in 1901. Ed’s father was born in Denver in 1904, his mother came from Worth, Missouri.

Ed was joined by one sister, Beverly Jean Crook (Lenihan), and they grew up in central Denver. The family attended Saint Francis De Sales Parish in Denver, where Ed served as an altar boy. He attended some of his primary school years at Catholic school. Much free time was spent with the extended Lenihan, Brown, and Neal families and friends, with fishing and hunting trips to the Brown and Neal families’ ranches near Creed Colorado, on the Rio Grande River.

Ed’s father passed away unexpectedly in 1936, when Ed was only eight and Beverly just four. Ed’s mother eventually re-married Edward Woodward and the family moved to the Garden Home neighborhood in West Denver. Ed and Beverly gained a new half-brother John Ernest Woodward in 1945. Ed attended all his remaining school years and graduated from Westwood High School in Westwood in 1947. Ed was his Senior Class President in 1947. An active athlete, Ed participated in basketball, football, and track and field throughout high school.

Ed was married in 1948 to Mary Ann Eberley, whom he met while ice skating. Ed and Mary remained married until her passing in 2015. Although they had no children of their own, they always enjoyed spending holidays, birthdays, and time throughout the years with all their nieces and nephews and their children.

Ed held a few jobs before he was drafted in 1952 during the Korean War, including delivering block ice to Denver homes ice boxes, before the advent of refrigerators. Ed entered the U.S. Navy and was sent to Air Traffic Control school in Kansas. He then spent active duty at Naval Air Station in Denver, as an Air Controlman 3rd Class, until his Honorable Discharge in 1955, after the armistice in Korea.

After the war, Ed found employment and a career with the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad. He started as a yard clerk in the Denver rail yards, eventually became a manager in freight logistics and intermodal transportation. Ed retired from the BNSF in 1984 in Colorado.

Ed and Mary moved to Sun Lakes, Arizona in 1986, but continued to spend summers in Colorado at Windsor Gardens. Both avid golfers, they spent much time with good friends golfing everywhere they could, always enjoying outings with family and friends in Arizona, California, and Colorado. They also enjoyed travelling abroad with many good friends over the years, through Ports of Call. Ed’s favorite visit was Ireland, where his family came from.

A classy, kind, and generous man, Uncle Ed is survived by 5 nieces, Linda Kaufman, Christie Fisher, Bobby Jo Wlodarek, Jill Maheu, Lisa Peeples and 2 nephews Jim Eberley and Mike Woodward. He is preceded in death by his wife of 67 years, Mary Ann, his sister Beverly, brother John, and 2 nephews Donald and Stanley Crook. He will be missed.

A clipping of this poem was found in Ed’s railroad memories.

Yard-Clerk Jitters

“They say yard clerking is just like a game

It has something to do with a train,

They give you some cards and point to the yards,

So you dash right out in the rain.

Your neck gets wet as you thumb through the deck;

That train is a mile up the slide.

With a hammer, a tack, and a sweaty back,

They will take it out of your hide.

So you walk and talk to the walkie-talk

That’s twenty more pounds on your back,

But when you get there, the track is bare,

There is nothing left but the hack.

So you start the grind of trying to find

All the cars the crew put away;

You swallow a lump, you look at the Hump,

Then you look the other way.

The rain comes down and soaks the ground

You start out puddle-jumping;

You look around, they can’t be found,

The hump-master keeps on humping.”

Author Unknown

Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad

The Argentine, Kansas Hump