Leslee A. Owens

She was born on July 25, 1955, in Dennison, Ohio, to John Paul Benson and Thelma Elizabeth Benson of Gnadenhutten, Ohio.

She had five children in six years and is survived by her beloved husband, Ben Owens; her children, Jamie Owens, Brandy Heathcote, Samantha Owens and Daniel Owens; and seven grandchildren. Leslee was preceded in death by her son, Alex Owens.

Leslee was an Army Veteran, a military spouse, and a civil servant. She died from pancreatic cancer, which she acquired serving her country as a military spouse at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in the 1980s.

Leslee was a voracious reader of books, news, and a consumer of knowledge. She loved her hobby farm, where she raised horses, Alex’s miniature donkey, cows, sheep, goats, alpaca, chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese – and her personal favorite, Rex rabbits. She also kept the usual assortment of domestic pets, despite being very allergic to them, because she loved animals. Leslee taught herself how to cook. She also loved her plants, despite admittedly not having a green thumb. She said she just liked to be surrounded by life all the time. She posted bird feeders in her windows so she could see the songbirds up close without disturbing them.

Leslee was a very capable person, who never let a challenge stop her. She was a wiz with a hammer, and could out-roof a pro. Before joining the military and then the civil service, she was a mechanic, and knew her way around a car. She also once worked for a semi-pro baseball team. She could hunt, she could fish, and gutting her supper did not phase her in the least. If something needed doing, Leslee was your gal. If you needed a spider, a lizard, a mouse, or a snake caught, Leslee was catching them with her bare hands and then showing you how not to get bit in the process.

Leslee was fluent in Spanish, having lived as an exchange student in Bolivia in her youth. She liked to wear ponchos and fluffy alpaca sweaters and delighted in telling her kids to “Vamos, ya!” when shopping. She went to college to become a teacher, which she did for a while, before declaring that she hated kids. When asked why she had five of them, she would reply, “Well, they’re fine when they’re your own.”

Leslee cherished following her Marine Corps husband around the world, seeing new places and learning new things. Living in Japan was a highlight for Leslee. During her time, Leslee also had the pleasure of getting to live in the mountains, the desert, the prairie, the coast, cities big and small, as well as eventually settling in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. She liked to say, “It’s a big, wide, beautiful, wonderful world. Anyone who doesn’t want to get out and enjoy it is crazy.”

Leslee understood that military spouses serve their country by supporting service members and their country, which is most critical in times of hardship or war. Leslee was stoic in the face of 9/11, when her husband, who was in the Pentagon during the terrorist attack, was subsequently detained along with other surviving staffers for weeks to assist with the rescue and recovery efforts. She also took it in stride that her daughter, who lived in Manhattan, personally witnessed the twin towers fall, causing her daughter’s hasty and chaotic evacuation.

Known in her family for her short stature, standing at a tick under 5 feet, which she rounded up to five as a point of pride, Leslee wasn’t going to let her height get in her way. She would, to her children’s simultaneous admiration and embarrassment, shimmy up grocery store shelves to get the goods no one else could reach. “If they didn’t want me to climb up their shelves, they’d put it where I could reach it,” she said.

In her youth, she worked as a lifeguard, where she learned the skills she needed to later teach all her children and some of her grandchildren how to swim. She played high school basketball, scurrying about like a crab on point guard, effectively getting and controlling the ball before dribbling away in a fit of laughter at her less capable, bewildered, much taller opponents. She also was wicked at sandlot and liked to hunt and fish.

Leslee will be remembered by her grandchildren: Vincent, Alek, Kenji, Nathan, Amira, Carlos, and Leo, for being a wonderful and generous host, who always made sure they had plenty of good food in their bellies and fun adventures to occupy their time that didn’t involve a television or iPad – although she had those available for ration, too, because she was the cool grandma. She will also be remembered for her massive collection of Boris the Mucousaurus dolls from the Meanie Baby collection, which she affectionately named the Mukies, and which frequently went on mischievous and often boarding-irreverent adventures in her kitchen. She had over 100 of them.

Private funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Timothy E. Hartle Funeral Home, 1328 Elk St., Franklin.

Please visit: www.hartlefuneralhome.comfor further information and to leave your note of condolence.