"Bert" Leddy - Born in a logging camp on the slopes of Mt. Mansfield in 1883. Descended from Irish immigrates who settled there after fleeing the Great Hunger of 1847.
With no formal education, he left the farm and worked in Burlington as an ice cream maker and shop owner, and sold hardware. He married Nellie Collins in 1917, and lived on St. Paul St. near their daughter Mary and husband Leo Abair, and their nine children.
When he died in 1967, he left behind to two typewritten manuscripts of poetry. He was known for writing and reciting poetry for family and friends, but nothing could explain the poems in the manuscripts. They had titles like Lost in the Desert, Vengeance on the Sea, Arctic Love, The Tale of the Toreador. But Bert had never left Vermont, nor was known to have published anything.
When his grandson, Chris Abair, set out to transcribe the manuscripts, he realized that the poems were poetic ballads, best appreciated when memorized and dramatically recited. He also found he had a hidden talent, and started performing his grandfather's poetry around Vermont.
A one-room school house was probably the extent of Bert's formal education.
He married Nellie Collins in 1917. Their only-child Mary was born in 1919.
In 1923, Bert partnered with Floyd Myrick in an ice cream parlor on Church St. called LEDRICK'S.
Nellie and Bert at their home on St. Paul Street, where many of his were found.
