Leslie, and his wife Gladys Grace Leslie, settled at 1400 Dixie Road around 1911. They had four children, George Leslie, Marian, Margaret and John Cameron. Their eldest son, George (Les Jr.), was born at 1400 Dixie Road and shortly after, the family moved to a newly built home at 2301 Dixie Road, on the east side, just north of where The Queensway now crosses Dixie Road.
Both Les Jr. and John Cameron became lawyers and practised law as partners in their own firm of Pallett & Pallett, Barristers and Solicitors, located in Port Credit. Dixie Arena Gardens was a client of the firm and Les Jr. became involved with Dixie Arena, eventually serving as its President. Brother John was elected to the House of Commons in 1954 and served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Trade and Commerce and later as the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. He held his seat until his defeat in 1962.
On May 29, 1954, Leslie H. Pallett retired as President of Dixie Arena Gardens. James Sherman took over the Arena’s reins. William Howard Pallett and James McCarthy were elected jointly as Vice Presidents while Les Jr. was elected to the Board of Directors.
While it was Leslie Howard Pallett who took the lead role in the development and building of Dixie Arena, it was his second cousin, William Howard Pallett, who was appointed as Secretary of the company, and who, in later years, became synonymous with Dixie Arena and the Dixie Beehive Hockey Club.
He became the driving force behind the quest to establish a top-notch hockey organization, which became the Dixie Beehives. Howard jumped in with both feet and led the way for the South Peel Hockey Club to purchase the East York Rockets in 1953, the forerunners of the Dixie Beehives. Howard essentially took over as the group’s president and, soon after, became its owner. Known in hockey circles as “King Bee”, Howard not only operated the Dixie Beehive organization, but served as Secretary/Treasurer of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA). In 1978 he was instrumental in writing the first Central Ontario Junior B Hockey League Constitution.
In addition, Howard continued to operate his family’s fruit growing business. Like many of the area market gardeners, Howard was involved with the Dixie Growers Limited, a cold storage facility located on Dixie Road, south of Dundas. In later years Howard would serve the growers as its president, a position he held until his death on October 5, 2002. Howard and his wife, Doris Elizabeth (Sherman), whom he married November 16,1940, had four children, daughters Gayle (Rutledge), Elaine (Lewis), Marilyn, and one son, Keith. Well known in the community for his devotion to minor sports, Howard received many awards including being inducted into the Mississauga Sports Hall of Fame as well as The Mississauga Hockey Hall of Fame. In April, 1975, he was awarded the Ontario Hockey Association’s Golden Stick Award and appointed a life member of the Mississauga Masonic Lodge 524. He was also active as a member of the Dixie Curling Club.
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