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The following painted canvas advertisement for Toney La Salle's business appears on a large wall menu/sign that is in the collection of the Louisville Historical Museum and is believed to date from the late 1930s: IaFRIGERATIOH. 5OL _ do a j ■ ;ion ffou ehold Utfrlfle�s LLER!c, WR51iERW. RADI OS� Toney W. La Salle was born in Marshall, Colorado in 1891 or 1892 and grew up in Louisville at 1045 Front Street. Katherine La Salle was born in Illinois in about 1894. Their only child, Richard, was born in Louisville in 1918. Toney La Salle was a talented baseball player who played semi -pro baseball with a Denver team. A leg injury in a car accident ended his playing career. Newspaper sources show that he was also a manager of baseball teams in the late 1910s and early 1920s. At the time of the 1920 census that was taken during the cold weather month of January 1920, the census listed Toney La Salle's occupation as that of a miner, but newspaper reports from September 1920 show that he was the shortstop for a team in Rapid City during the warm weather months. The September 7, 1920 edition of the Denver Post reported that La Salle was a "star shortstop" playing in the championship game of the Post's annual baseball tournament when an Interurban train carrying passengers from Louisville, on their way to watch him play, collided with another train on September 6, 1920. The accident killed twelve, of whom it has been reported that six were from Louisville, and injured 214, of whom it has been reported that more than forty were from Louisville. La Salle's own father and brother (who were on their way to watch him play) survived the accident with injuries. By 1930, Toney La Salle was a salesman in Louisville, with "radios" being specifically mentioned on his census record. The family appears to have rented homes in Louisville until the purchase of this property at 1041 Grant in 1931. The purchase of the property and construction of their house appears to have represented a change in the family's fortunes for the better, due to La Salle's success as a business owner. At around the time of the construction of the La Salle home at 1041 Grant in 1931, fifteen -year -old Richard La Salle was already showing promise as a talented musician. His father had bought him an accordion when he was a child and he took lessons from Eliseo Jacoe, owner of Louisville's Jacoe Store. By the time he was fifteen, he was 2