John Lemmo

[TuckerCar]

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>John Lemmo passed away December 26th (coincidentally, the same date at Preston Tucker).</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>
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John R. Lemmo, sportsman, owned, restored Tucker cars <br>
Wednesday, December 29, 2004<br>
Richard M. Peery<br>
Plain Dealer Reporter <br>
Peninsula <br>
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-- John R. Lemmo, 88, a fixture in sports circles and owner of two rare Tucker automobiles, died Sunday at Arden Courts in Bath Township. <br>
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Lemmo owned 32 classic cars and two airplanes at one time, but he sold most of them to help finance the restoration of the Tuckers. One of them was the Tin Goose, a prototype of the car that Preston Tucker developed in the 1940s to compete with the Big Three automakers. <br>
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Although only 51 cars were produced, the revolutionary engineering forced the other manufacturers to upgrade their automotive designs. <br>
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Lemmo found the Tin Goose rusting behind a barn in Pennsylvania in 1971 and bought the hulk. Two years later, he found another rusting Tucker in Elyria. He spent 15 years traveling to swap meets to find parts, or had them made to order. <br>
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When the movie "Tucker: The Man and his Dream" was made in 1988, Lemmo lent his cars to director Francis Ford Coppola. Lemmo helped assemble cars on the set before filming and drove one as an extra in a caravan scene outside a courthouse. <br>
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He finally sold the Tuckers in the 1990s. <br>
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Lemmo was born in Bedford. He was a student at Bedford High School and sports editor of the Bedford Times when he attended the Cleveland Arena for the first time in 1937, the year it opened. He returned in 1962 as manager with a one-year charge to rescue the building, which was then losing money. <br>
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He stayed for 12 years, during which he boosted the number of events with more wrestling shows, the roller derby and Ice Capades. Lemmo then moved to the new Coliseum in Richfield as operations manager, staying for a year. While he worked in Richfield, Lemmo started building a home in Peninsula with a basement showroom where he displayed his cars and other memorabilia. <br>
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Lemmo retired as operations manager for the Browns early in the 1990s but stayed on as a consultant until the old team moved to Baltimore. <br>
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Before he took the job at the Arena, Lemmo was involved in auto racing. He was a field announcer at tracks in 19 states, including Daytona Beach in Florida. He was racing director at Cloverleaf Speedway in Valley View and covered stock car races and sports car events for The Plain Dealer for more than 15 years. <br>
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He also served in the Army during World War II. <br>
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His first wife, Jennie Elizabeth Rich, is deceased. <br>
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He was married for the last 29 years to the former Jane A. Hartshorn. <br>
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Lemmo is also survived by a son, Jack of Broadview Heights; stepdaughters, Pamela Prusinski of North Royalton and Terri Van of Mentor; a stepson, R. Alan Bigelow of Marshallville, Ohio; 14 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. <br>
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Services will be at 11 a.m. today at Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church, 6034 North Locust St., Peninsula. <br>
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Memorial contributions may be made to: <br>
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Alzheimer's Association, 12200 Fairhill Road, Cleveland 44120. <br>
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Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church, 6034 North Locust St., Peninsula 44264. <br>
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Arrangements are by the Ferfolia Funeral Home of Sagamore Hills Township. <br>
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<p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p206.ezboard.com/btucker.showUserPublicProfile?gid=tuckercar>tuckercar</A> at: 1/5/05 7:28 pm<br></i>

[KDB]

I don't know who might read this, but I was just surfing the web tonight and thought about my time working at the Richfield Coliseum. I was very fortunate in meeting and becoming a short time friend of Mr. Lemmo. I worked for his son Jack in the Special Events crew.
I got to know Mr Lemmo through our discussions about cars. One night he brought in a set of rusted spoked rims from a Cord he had just purchased. It took me almost a month to clean those rims.
He started bringing other things in like the headlight rims from his Lincoln and other rust encrusted items. One day he invited me over to his home to see a "special project" he was working on. Please remember this was over 30 years ago so a detail or two may be left out.
I remember I drove to his home on a Kawasaki 500. He led me to a row of garages behind his home and opened one of the garage doors. Inside was a monster of a car that was right out of a Flash Gordon strip.
He opened the back door and all I could think of was how a bath tub could fit right on the floor with room to spare. He showed me the cyclops headlight and how it turned with the steering wheel. I asked him " what the heck is it !?". He showed me a spot on the car where paint had been scraped off and told me what looked like stains in the metal was actually lead filler used in proto-type design. He smiled and said, " I think this might be an original Tin Goose, otherwise known as a Tucker".
I got an instant history of Preston Tucker and his Dream. I also fell in love with the car. As I said, my relationship with Mr. Lemmo was short, I got to work on the car on and off for about a year. What sticks in my my most was the day I went with him to pick up the leather for recovering the seats. All the way to his house all you could smell was the untanned leather. He was a perfectionist and everything was done from scratch.
I never got to see the finished product. I just learned recently it was featured in the movie. I also didn't know he had more than one.
Although I only knew him a short time, he left a lasting impression on me and I've always been fond of the history of automobiles since knowing him. He was also a fair man who let me and a friend borrow one of the Coliseum vans to go see Pink Floyd in Pittsburg. Thanks John, you and Jack were great to work for.
PS - I also just learned where the car is dispalyed and hope to get out to se it soon.

Sincerely,
Ken