Florence Mae Hall Leslie

January 24, 1926 - September 25, 2015

Chapel Hill

Florence Mae Hall Leslie, 89, died on September 25, 2015, at the Dubose Health Center at the Cedars of Chapel Hill. She was born in Grantsville, W. Va.,on Jan. 24, 1926, the third child and only daughter of James E. and Esther Farrar Hall. She was preceded in death by her parents, two older brothers, Lowell and James, Jr., two daughters, Margaret Esther and Jane Carol and her husband William C. Leslie.

Her family moved several times during the depression, from Baltimore, MD, and York, Pa. to Sacramento, CA, finally settling in Columbus, Ohio, where Florence earned a BA degree in chemistry education at The Ohio State University. While at the university, she was a member of Delta Zeta Sorority. After graduation, she worked at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, where she met her husband, William (Bill) Leslie.

After Bill finished his Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering at The Ohio State University, they were married, and Bill was employed by US Steel at their research center in New Jersey. After a short stint in Cleveland, OH, they eventually made their home and raised their family in Murrysville, PA, when the US Steel Research Laboratories moved to Monroeville. While there, Florence started teaching junior high and high school mathematics at Franklin Regional High School after earning a master's degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh. She enjoyed playing couples bridge and was a member of the local Women's Club. When her husband became a professor of engineering at the University of Michigan, they moved to Ann Arbor, where they enjoyed attending football games and Florence continued to teach mathematics at Green Hills School, developing several new investment courses for her students. A six-month sabbatical took them to Melbourne, Australia, which they both thoroughly enjoyed. After over a decade in Michigan, they retired to 70 acres in Fluvanna Co., VA, near Charlottesville and built their retirement home in 1985. There, she was an active member and former president of the Fluvanna Garden Club, and they both enjoyed gardening, golf, tennis, canoeing, community service and international travel to many places around the globe. After Bill died in 2003, Florence moved to the Cedars in Chapel Hill where she spent many active years playing bridge, attending North Carolina Symphony concerts and having dinner with her daughter and son-in-law every Sunday.

She was a loving mother and supportive wife, and a gracious hostess and wonderful cook for friends, family and her husband's many professional colleagues. She was the pillar of our family in good times and bad and will be greatly missed. Florence is survived by her daughter, Barbara Leslie Putney and her husband James (Jim) of Chapel Hill, and two granddaughters, Margaret Leslie Mallette and husband Justin Mallette (Baltimore, MD) and Katharine Heartwell Putney and fiancé Michael Ellis (Athens, GA).

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 1 pm in the ballroom of the Cedars of Chapel Hill Clubhouse with a reception following in her home at 311 Cedar Berry Lane.

The family would like to thank the many wonderful aides from Cedars Home Care that helped her in her last years and the team from Duke Hospice.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory can be sent to the Florence H. Leslie Math Prize at Greenhills School, 850 Greenhills Dr., Ann Arbor,

MI 48105, or to the Margaret E. Leslie Memorial Fund for senior art majors at Kenyon College: Department of Art, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, 43022-9623.

Published by The News & Observer on Oct. 4, 2015.

Source: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/newsobserver/name/florence-leslie-obituary?id=12139928