Born in a home his grandfather built, Leon Thomas saw nearly a century of change, often from the bottom up as an African-American male in segregated Shreveport. As a youngster he played baseball and football, but says basketball wasn't popular. Leon remembers vaudeville and films at Star Theatre on Texas Avenue and at Lincoln Theater on Marshall Street. By age twelve he was delivering ice in the Queensboro area by horse-drawn wagon. Later, he worked at the Caddo Hotel, first as a dishwasher, and later as a busboy and then as a waiter. In 1940 he left the hotel and helped build Camp Claiborne in Alexandria. He next waited tables at Dehan's Restaurant, and then at the Shreveport Country Club. Finally he started work at the Shreveport Club where he was still employed at age ninety. Meanwhile, in 1956, he obtained his real estate license, and bought and sold real estate. His wife, Clara Virginia Allen Thomas, worked for the Caddo Parish School Board.