I couldn't help but feel sad last week after reading of the passing of John Kenley, one of the country’s great showmen who left an indelible mark on our area with his summer stock theater in Warren, Ohio.

Kenley, he of the flaming red hair and pasty complexion who gave budding actors their starts in the business and extended the careers of many veterans, died in Cleveland Clinic from complications of pneumonia at the ripe old age of 103.

When I started my career at The Herald in 1974, Packard Music Hall in Warren with his Kenley Players was the place to be throughout the summer. Our bosses at The Herald always got promotional tickets for opening night, as well as ones for reporters to cover the show.

We young reporters would jump at the chance to cover opening night, and sometimes, we didn’t have to work at all when tickets ended up in our hands from our bosses who couldn’t attend. Making opening night special were the post-show parties, at which Kenley and the stars would attend, at the former Brown Derby Restaurant and later at Cherry’s Top of the Mall in Niles.

I can remember attending the shows at Kenley and seeing Rex Harrison, Mickey Rooney, Tommy Tune, Ann Miller and William Shatner to name a handful. His vision of inviting Hollywood as well as Broadway stars to his summer stock shows provided the Warren area with some two decades of top-flight entertainment before he moved it to Akron in 1978.

Kenley was brilliant in attracting the stars from screen and stage, and while many filled odd roles, Kenley knew that the celebrity was the attraction, and often added scenes or musical numbers that capitalized on their strengths.

The Kenley Players in Warren served as an example of how a short season of summer stock can boost a local economy. In the many stories about Kenley that I have read since his death, several have quoted restaurateurs and other merchants about the excitement and financial windfall that the playhouse brought to the area.

Several years ago, my wife and I were in Florida to watch the Cleveland Indians during spring training in Winter Haven, but we stayed in Clearwater Beach and made the hour’s drive every day.

We stopped into a Publix, a popular Florida grocery store, on nearby Island Estates. I hadn’t seen Kenley in person since he moved his Warren operation to Akron, but 25 years couldn’t stop me from recognizing him. I knew the person at the deli counter was Kenley, and I walked up to him and said, “Well, if it isn’t John Kenley.” The woman accompanying him said with a smile, “John Kenley, your reputation precedes you.”

We talked for a little while, about the days of summer stock in Warren and about the Sharon area, his good health although he was well into his 90s, and his secret for healthy living — a very large Manhattan on a nightly basis. Kenley spent winters in Clearwater, and his summers in the Cleveland area community of Seven Hills.

It has been more than 30 years since the Kenley Players left Warren, but the memories of the excitement that the late showman brought during the summers are vivid, and sad in the sense that we’ll never again see anything the magnitude of Kenley’s summer stock operation. He was an entertainer way ahead of his time.

The editor's e-mail bag

I got the following e-mail from Pete Dawson, who lives in Florida but has ties to both Farrell and Sharpsville.

“Reading your articles on Farrell over the last few weeks has brought back a lot of memories of my father. Harvey Dawson, my dad, grew up in Farrell on Fruit Avenue and most all his family did as well. They had a family grocery store, DeBrakeleer’s, that was on his mother’s side of the family.

“He graduated from Farrell, and I grew up in Sharpsville until my parents got divorced in the late 70s. I remember that he had season tickets to all the Farrell football and basketball games. We would travel every year to Hershey for the playoffs. He was a true testament of what the Shenango Valley was all about. We went to all the Sharpsville high school sports events as well. He was a special education teacher for the Sharon City School District for 25 years and the voice of the Tigers football team in the press box for six years.