Dave Leatherby, Sr., founder of Sacramento's Leatherby's Family Creamery, died Sunday at the age of 81. His family says he'd been battling pneumonia.
Leatherby opened his first ice cream parlor and restaurant on Arden Way in 1982. It's still open and two more have opened since, in Citrus Heights and Elk Grove. A father of ten children, Leatherby put his kids to work in the family business, and the creamery's website says there are now 80 family members, including 60 grandchildren, involved in the operation. They also estimate 5,000 local young people in the Greater Sacramento area have worked for Leatherby's over the past 36 years.