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Funeral Service 
FOR
KIAH L. SAYLES

AUGUST 23, 1918 - SEPTEMBER 20, 1974

ST. PETER'S LUTHERAN CHURCH
at 
CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Park Avenue & 64th Street
New York City

September 24, 1974 - 1:00 P.M.

AN ADVENTURE ENDS

Hezekiah Lenwood Sayles, Jr.'s life adventure came to a halt in the Presbyterian Medical Center Hospital, Friday, September 21, 1974. The final heart tick ended less than a month after his 56th birthday. Life for Hezekiah, whom people throughout the world knew as "Kiah," his personally adopted name, was an adventure. It started back in Richmond, Virginia, August 23, 1918, when he was born to a proud Mr. and Mrs. Hezekiah Sayles, Sr. A pretty baby, he developed into a beautiful human being.

The family, seeking a brighter horizon, moved to New York when he turned five. Poor in funds, but rich in ambition, they instilled in him a hunger for achievements and character which developed a man who grew up to walk with greatness.

In the New York City educational system, elementary and high schools, he made academic marks which paralleled his enormous popularity with his classmates. After a business administrative course, Lincoln University, he faced the challenges which confront an adult on the "No man's lands of every day living" and his life's adventure began to take shape.

In 1948, he had left New York to manage a new "black" hotel in Chicago. One of its most famous guests was Joe Louis who, like everyone else, took a liking to the affable Kia Sayles. Turning in his keys, he became associated with the immortal heavyweight as publicity aid, so the adventure took on steam and a new meaning. He traveled extensively with the symbol of boxing and the changing times for blacks. At home and abroad he started making new friends. In this environment Kiah's own name became known and he was sought after by minor and major companies.

In 1969, the late Jackie Robinson talked him into joining him as marketing director of Sea Host, Inc., a fast food chain in which the baseball great had become involved.

When Jackie Robinson tunred from the fast food chain and entered the construction and housing development arena, Kiah's adventure became full grown. A partner and director, everywhere the baseball immortal went, he was sure to show. In the final days of Robinson's walk with life, Kiah was his closest associate, his "eyes" and "legs." He was with the company when his adventure through many, but too short years, of productive travel along the highways and byways of a life which took him through the worst of times and the best of times, ended. He was also an inspector of the New York Athletic Commission, appointed by former governor Nelson Rockefeller, when Jackie Robinson was added to the Commission.

Willa Dean, his wife, Helene, a daughter of a former marriage, George, an adopted son, Mr. and Mrs. Hezekiah Sayles, Sr., Mrs. Leola Edwards, his sister, Pamala Jackson, a niece, a grand niece, a number of other relatives and a host of coast-to-coast friends survive to mourn the ending of the life adventure of Hezekiah Lenwood Sayles, Jr.

[[image - six black and white photographs of scenes from the funeral of Kiah Sayles]]