Juanita Leach

Funeral services for Juanita each will be at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, August 11, 2011 at Temple Baptist Church with Dr. Eddie Chennault officiating under the direction of George Carroll Funeral Home. Interment will follow at Fairview Cemetery. Family visitation will be from 9-10:00 am prior to the service.

Mrs. Leach was born May 26, 1917, in Minden, Louisiana, the daughter of Dr. Bertram Allen Norman, MD, and Pearl Toadvin Norman. She graduated Minden High School and attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She married Francis K. Leach, in Marietta, Oklahoma, on October 3, 1936.

Mrs. Leach was a housewife and part-time bookkeeper for Leach Bros. Radio and Television Service. She was a past president of the Cooke County Home Demonstration Club, and several Gainesville flower clubs. She was the charter president for Gainesville Visual Arts. She is a Past Regent of Francis Lightfoot Lee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a member of the Fort Worth Council of Flower Show Judges, the Texas Chrysanthemum Society and the Fort Worth Rose Society.

Mrs. Leach won numerous awards for her drawings, paintings, and flower arrangements, including the Sweepstakes Award for the Fort Worth Flowercade. She was a Life Master Flower Show Judge and certified flower designer.

In 2004, Mrs. Leach was designated a home-grown hero by the City of Gainesville for her work to bring state-wide recognition to Gainesville in the Keep Texas Beautiful Program.

Mrs. Leach was a life-long Democrat and voted for Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. She was a member of the Executive Committee for the Cooke County Democratic Party, and a precinct chair. She was a delegate to 14 Texas State Democratic Conventions and a delegate to the 2004 National Democratic Convention in Boston.

She is survived by her son, Ken Leach of Gainesville; grandson, Michael McCorkle and his wife, Karen of Castle Rock, Colorado; granddaughters, Phyllis McCorkle McDonald and her husband, Jeff of Fort Worth; Nickie McCorkle Rutland Guyer and her husband, Jerry of Dallas; Jackie Neu of Fort Worth; and Deloras Nava Overstreet and her husband, Trent of Bastrop: great grandchildren, Russell Rutland, David New, Jr., Rachel McCorkle Bolander, Sabrina McCorkle, Brice McCorkle, Brandon Overstreet, Brady Overstreet, Sissy Overstreet, and Robert Overstreet; son-in-law, Robert Nava; and sister-in-law, Mildred Norman of Minden, Louisiana.

Mrs. Leach was preceded in death by her husband; daughter, Betty Nava; brother, Francis Toadvin Norman; sister, Sybil Norman; an infant grandson and an infant great granddaughter.



Pall bearers will be Jeff McDonald, Jerry Guyer, Trent Overstreet, Russell Rutland, David Neu, Aaron Leach, and Samuel Leach.

To commemorate her love of the beauty of flowers, contributions may be made to the Wild Scape Garden Fund, 3111 Old Garden Road, Fort Worth TX which is project of the Texas Council of Garden Clubs consisting of a three-acre display of native Texas plants at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.