01/02/17   McIntyre Obit

93 year old Leslie T. McIntyre Jr. of Pine Bluff died December 29. He played on the 1939 Zebra National High School Championship team. McIntyre worked at the Pine Bluff Arsenal during World War II. In 1944 he and two partners bought the Eden Park Natatorium Club which became Eden Park Country Club. Leslie bought out his partners and ran Eden Park for over 60 years before selling in 2004.

In addition to Eden Park, Leslie ran the Leslie T. McIntyre Jr. Construction Company for many years. In 1973 he formed Cool Caps Courts that resurfaced and built tennis courts across Arkansas. A gifted athlete, Leslie took up tennis at about 40 and excelled. He avidly promoted the sport of tennis and built at Eden Park one of the first indoor tennis courts in the South. Table tennis became a passion of his, he was a charter member of the Peking China Ping Pong Club. he won, along with John Smithey at age 71 second place in the Arkansas Closed State Table Tennis Championship.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday (Jan 4) at 2pm at Ralph Robinson and Son Chapel with Reverend Van Windsor officiating, interment in Graceland Cemetery. Visitation Wednesday at 12:30 till 1:45 at Robinson's.