Sad he has passed but a major touchdown that you tracked down the ID IMHO. :thumbup:
Obituary:
http://www.lileyfuneralhomes.com/obituary.asp?ObitsID=423
If you read the condolences there is some background and history of him at A.E.Schmidt.
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Thanks for finding and posting that link. It is ironic that he was from Marble Hill, MO. I would think that many of my family may have known him, or known of him. Our family came from Germany or Austria a few hundred years ago and many of them settled in Marble Hill. I have tons of family that still live there and many of the businesses are owned or operated by relatives.
One of the online condolences kind of summed up his life and it was written by Bob Schmidt...he is the brother of Fred, the guy I called about my cue.
I'll post it here, just to keep his story alive for the pool and billiards folks.
______________________________
There are not many craftsmen in today's world. Lloyd Bennett was a craftsman in wood, and his specialty was in the billiard business. He was a master craftsman who could build a pool table from scratch, fix an old table and make it as good as new, sew leather pockets by hand, and repair any cue stick he was handed. He was an expert refinisher who loved to tackle an antique pool table and bring out its natural beauty. To watch him work was like seeing an artist create something from nothing.
I first met Lloyd when we were teenagers at A E Schmidt Co. in St Louis. My uncle, Arthur, had hired Lloyd to work in the factory making and repairing pool tables. Lloyd was taken under the wings of Gene Duncan and Ray Kester, an older generation of master craftsman who worked at A E Schmidt Co. most of their working lives. From Gene Duncan, Lloyd learned everything about building pool tables - building frames, drilling holes in the slate beds, putting rubber cushions on the rails, and many other skills. From Ray Kester, Lloyd learned how to make cues, repair cues, and turn an ivory ball. Lloyd was a quick study and kept the tradition of craftsmanship alive at the company when the older men retired.
Lloyd worked for twenty years at A E Schmidt Co. and then moved back to Greenville, MO. for awhile. Missing the business, he let people know he wanted to return to work. My father, Harold, heard that Lloyd was available and arranged for him to come to Little Rock, AR for an interview to work at Jones Brothers Pool Tables where I was the manager of the store. We immediately hired Lloyd, recognizing his talents and our retail business began to grow. Lloyd was a fixture in our cue repair room and quickly all the good pool players in the state were coming around to have their cues fixed and new shafts made for them. In the mid 1980's an opportunity came for us to open a pool room in an entertainment complex and we decided to put only antique pool tables in it which we would also sell. Thus started Lloyd's first side business where we would buy the antiques and Lloyd would refinish them in a shop behind his house.
The next phase of Lloyd's life was centered around the growth of Dave & Buster's, a national company which used A E Schmidt pool tables as one of their major themes in a restaurant - entertainment center. starting in Dallas in 1982, Dave & Buster's expanded to over 40 locations in the US and 4 location in other countries. Lloyd installed the tables in a few of the early locations. But his real relationship with Dave & Buster would come a few years later.
In the meantime, Lloyd had fallen in love with Lea Ann and they decided to move back to the Greenville, Missouri area where Lloyd's relatives lived. Lloyd had worked for Jones Brothers for ten years and now decided that he and Lee Ann would start their own billiard business - L A Pool Tables - in Grassy, MO. We began to send our pool tables to be refinished to Lloyd and so had my brother who has a store in Columbia. MO. Lloyd had customers as far away as New York who would send him rails to repair or tables to refinish. We also sent the more difficult cue repairs to Lloyd.
As Dave & Buster's started their major expansion in the 1990's, they needed someone they could count on to recover their pool tables every 4 months. Soon Lloyd and Lea Ann (whom Lloyd had taught to recover tables) were driving or flying all over the U S working at Dave & Buster's. They did good work - and fast . How two of them could recover 14 tables in two days always amazed us at Jones Bros. LA Pool Tables and Dave & Buster's became a good fit and helped both companies grow.
In Lea Ann, Lloyd had not only found a good business partner but the love of his life. They were good together - working long hours and still laughing when the work was done. I didn't see much of Lloyd after he left Little Rock, but I know he loved living in the country, being with Lea Ann, and fishing for relaxation. Lea Ann and Lloyd inspired each other to carve their own business and livelihood in a rural setting. They were a good couple.
I feel privileged to have known Lloyd Bennett most of my life. He was an inspiration. If I came to him with a problem with a billiard table, his first question was always "What have you got?" When I told him the problem, he could always solve it . He was a hard and tireless worker. He helped to train one of my employees, Walter Thurman, who has become a craftsman in his own right . Above all, it was fun to watch Lloyd work. To watch a master at work - to make something look easy that is technically very hard is a thrill. Lloyd Bennett, craftsman, will be long remembered.
but I have know clue what they mean.
