Our next installment of the Joplin Live Wire series is Richard Fedeli. Fedeli, the son of an Italian Immigrant, was born in Indiana around 1877. He arrived in Joplin in 1909, previously from Kansas City, where he had connections with the business of Devoe and Reynolds (a paint company still in existence). In Joplin, Fedeli rose to the rank of treasurer and secretary at the Joplin Paint and Paper Company. Concerning painting, itself, Fedeli told a reporter from the Joplin Daily Globe, “We shall sell paint and let the other fellow do the painting.”
Although Fedeli was recognized as a rising star of Joplin’s community, he returned to Kansas City by 1920. He remained there until at least 1930, where the former corporate officer had fallen to the position of a salesman of brushes, perhaps paint brushes. The Joplin Paint and Paper Company also disappeared, but once was found at 418 Joplin Ave.
