Leamon Lee Kearney, 89; Cofounded Teamsters Local in Orange County

Leamon Lee Kearney, who rose from poverty to become one of California’s most powerful labor leaders, has died. He was 89.

Kearney died Thursday of complications from pneumonia at his home in Orange.

In 1949, Kearney cofounded a new Teamsters local in growing postwar Orange County, and served as its secretary-treasurer for 33 years until his retirement.

Under his leadership, Local 952 eventually had 15,000 members and became the -second-largest Teamsters unit on the West Coast and the eighth-largest in the nation.

“He was a dapper, sophisticated and smooth guy. Very likable. But if you pushed him, he pushed back,” said Patrick Kelly, Local 952’s current secretary-treasurer. “In Southern California, you have a history of a strong open shop. Successful union leaders that were able to shepherd growth here picked their fights very carefully.”

Kearney was born March 4, 1914, in Sweetwater, Texas. His parents moved him, his two brothers and sister to Southern California when he was 5. But by 14, Kearney was an orphan. His father was electrocuted while working on a power pole, and his mother died of cancer.

He dropped out of Oceanside High School in his junior year to help support his siblings during the Great Depression.

He picked lemons in the Vista area, and earned the nickname “V-8” because of his speed in the groves. He later worked as a logger in Northern California and served in the Navy during World War II.

Kearney became a union organizer in the 1930s while working for Sunkist in Ontario. When Orange County became big enough to support its own Teamsters local, he was tapped to head it. At the time, the local had just 770 members and $1,500 in the bank.

Kearney represented workers in industries ranging from trucking to baking, and helped negotiate contracts that provided more than just better wages.

By the 1970s, Local 952 members had one of the best health plans in the nation, including fully paid vision, medical and dental care.

“In the old days, our concern was simply money,” Kearney said in 1981. “But the pressures are changing now, and fringe benefits are nearly as important to most workers -- sometimes more important -- as straight wages.”

Kearney, who lived in Orange for 48 years, is survived by four daughters, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His wife of 64 years, Ruth, died earlier this year.

“He exuded a natural charisma,” said daughter Kathryn Mitchell. “You just knew when you met him that you could trust him and that he would be fair. He was a genuine, nice, honorable and honest man.”

Viewing will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Friday at Shannon-Bryan Mortuary in Orange, with services at 11 a.m. Saturday.