REGINA – Howard Leyton-Brown turns 97 in December. We meet him for our interview in his studio on the second floor of Darke Hall. It’s important to note there is no elevator in the historic Darke Hall (although plans for renovations are in the works) – Leyton-Brown climbs the two sets of stairs three times a week.
The accomplished violinist and World War II veteran has just been bestowed with an important honour from the French government for his role in the liberation of Paris in August 1944, but he begins with a story about a store clerk in Europe who had trouble with the spelling of his name.
“I told her it’s Howard. Leyton – L-E-Y-T-O-N hypen Brown,” he says. “I repeated it twice for her. Finally, she says, ‘I’m sorry, but how do you spell ‘hyphen’?”
He laughs.
I can tell this is going to be a fun interview.
The decorated veteran has many stories, but he’s not very philosophical. In fact, most of his stories from the war are quite comical – like the time his co-pilot thought he’d been hit by an enemy fighter because during a dive, his flask of hot coffee burst and ran down his face, which he mistook for blood.
There was another time when he was a flight instructor in Estevan: a pilot had nearly been killed during a routine landing when he’d hit a prairie chicken, which knocked him unconscious. The bird still lay on the cockpit floor when Leyton-Brown went to investigate.
“So I picked up the prairie chicken and took it to Estevan and my mother-in-law cooked it for dinner,” he tells me.
He only chuckles when I begin to laugh. I had asked him what he thought he learned from his time in the military before he told me of the strange prairie chicken incident. He shrugs when he’s finished.
“What do you suppose one learns from that?”
I’m not sure either, but I begin to understand that if anyone is hoping for his imparted wisdom, they’ll find it in the way Leyton-Brown carries himself – the way he still drives, teaches violin, and lives on his own although he approaches 100 years old – and not in the war stories he recounts.
Nevertheless, I enjoy speaking with him and when I meet him several days later at his home to borrow some photographs for our feature, he gives them over generously, but with a caveat –
“I want these back. There are two parts of my life – my work as a musician and my time in the Air Force. There both equally important to me. If you lose or damage these – ” he pauses. “I’ll have to kill you.”
I make sure to return them and for more than one reason after meeting Howard Leyton-Brown, I’m grateful to be alive.
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