BONUS EPISODE: Mabel, The Spelled-Backward Namesake of Lebam, Washington
APR 2, 202644 MIN
BONUS EPISODE: Mabel, The Spelled-Backward Namesake of Lebam, Washington
APR 2, 202644 MIN
Description
Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Ruth Leonard of Lacey, Washington - the granddaughter of Mabel of Lebam.
Ruth's grandmother's full name was Mabel Pearl Goodell Thompson. Mabel's father, Jotham Goodell founded the community of Half Moon, in what's now Pacific County along Highway 6, about midway between the communities of Frances and Holcomb . When the US Post Office rejected "Half Moon" for the post office there circa 1890, Jotham Goodell came up with an alternate: Lebam, which was his three or four-year-old daughter Mabel's name spelled backward.
In this conversation, Ruth Leonard brings her grandmother to life through memories of Mabel and of the community of Lebam. Mabel Pearl Goodell Thompson, who gets no more than a sentence or two in Washington state placename books as Lebam's namesake, is rendered by her granddaughter as a three-dimensional human being.
CASCADE OF HISTORY spoke with Ruth Leonard on Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
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