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L. DeWayne Young
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Leonard DeWayne Young was born March 17, 1938 in Twin Falls, Idaho to Alice Gillis Young and Leonard Young.
DeWayne attended Washington Elementary School through the second grade, when the family moved to Pocatello, Idaho. Subsequent family moves were to Blackfoot and Wapello, Idaho and then to Moses Lake, Washington, and back to Blackfoot where DeWayne attended Blackfoot Junior High and Senior High Schools, graduating in 1956. He was the editor of two Blackfoot High School yearbooks, a cheerleader, and was in the Top Ten Scholastic graduating students. Upon graduating, he studied at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and Idaho State University, where he obtained his B.A. in English in 1982 and began work on an M.A. in physical education. At BYU in 1956, he joined the International Folk Dancers.
He taught at Church College of Hawaii (now BYU-Hawaii), where he was Director of Student Activities. DeWayne later taught at Seattle Central Community College, as well as at the Madrona dance Center in Seattle, Washington. He also worked at Blackfoot High School, Blackfoot Morning News, and the Idaho Department of Labor where he retired in 2000.
He always enjoyed national and international travel with family and friends. He cherished and appreciated the many friends made during these adventures. DeWayne and his mother traveled to many different places and enjoyed cruises.
After his parents and sister passed away, DeWayne, having no immediate family left, bonded with two "families" of friends and appointed them as his heirs: Greg and Monika Szlanga of Chojnice, Poland and Clayton and Jenna Handy of Burley, Idaho.
For several years he made his summer home in Blackfoot, Idaho and a winter home in Phoenix, Arizona with his friend and companion, Dr. Donald E. Silvius. They enjoyed travels at home and abroad, including Bulgaria, Poland, and China. They toured 21 California Missions, most United States National Parks, took cruises to Alaska and Mexico, and had adventures wherever they went.
In June 2011, in Dr. Silvius' memory, DeWayne commissioned "Idaho’s Snake River," and original oil painting by artist J. Kenneth Spencer of Blackfoot and donated it to the Blackfoot Performing Arts Center, where it hangs in the foyer.
DeWayne served as co-editor of Vytautas Beliajus' Viltis Magazine for fifteen years.
Leonard DeWayne Young, 76, of Blackfoot, Idaho passed away Monday, November 3, 2014 at the Bingham Memorial Skilled Nursing and Rehab.
