Maxon Kneiding

Maxon (Maxson) Carl Kneiding lived a life rooted in community and steady work. Born September 20, 1916, public cemetery records show he spent his later years in the Eagle Rock/Glendale area, where he operated a local service station and became a familiar face to neighbors and customers alike. He and his wife, Lela Ellen (nee Reed), raised a family and were described in contemporaneous reports as warm, active members of their Glendale neighborhood.

Friends and neighbors recalled the Kneidings as “terrific” and “happy people,” and the couple participated in local church and community life; services for the family were reported to be held at a Glendale Seventh-day Adventist church. Their daughters later assisted law-enforcement efforts by identifying personal items taken from the home after the attack, an indication of an involved family who sought answers while trying to mourn privately.

Though public records and news accounts focus on the tragic way Maxon and Lela died on July 20, 1985, their lives were more than that single day. Maxon’s decades of work in the neighborhood and the small acts of service and familiarity he offered to those who visited his station form an important part of how he is remembered. Those who knew the Kneidings have spoken of a gentle, ordinary dignity in their lives that neighbors treasured.

Today, Maxon is remembered first for the life he lived—the work, the family, and the quiet ties to his community—rather than for the violence that ended it. This page honors those aspects: a husband, a local business owner, and a neighbor whose presence mattered to many. May the memory of Maxon Carl Kneiding stand as a small testament to a life of steady work and family ties.