feature story project part 1

Leon Schmidt, a noted philanthropist and successful businessman who owned the Yaring’s line of clothing stores in Austin, died Friday, a family member said. He was 97.    Schmidt owned Yaring’s, a clothing retail er that had 10 stores in Austin at the height of its popularity in the 1980s. Its flagship store on Congress Avenue was a local landmark for more than 60 years. Schmidt was an active philanthropist who supported numerous causes in Austin. He was born Feb. 12, 1916, in Yorktown in DeWitt County in South Texas. His fa- ther, Jacob Schmidt, had come to the United States as a young Hungarian immigrant with $18 in his pocket. In 1907, he sold dry goods out of a covered wagon in Seguin. Two years later, he opened a store called Jacob Schmidt in Yorktown. In 1930, he moved his store and family to Austin.