When God created Leslie he combined the best of her mother, Betty J. Richard, the best of her father Loren W. Counce, Jr., and as much of Him as He allows any human being. The result was the beautiful, intelligent, caring, loyal, motivated and self-reliant individual that she was.
Leslie's love for her family, her friends, and her work was exemplified in the manner in which she pursued each of those relationships, and nothing gave her greater pleasure than the accomplishments of her family and those individuals who worked for her. She reveled in the satisfaction of a job extraordinarily well done and each job she undertook reflected her belief "that every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it" and she did "autograph her work with excellence."
Despite, the many positive attributes God gave Leslie, or perhaps to balance her many blessings, He also gave her an "Achilles heel" in the form of a melanoma on her right foot which manifested itself in the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma in August 2004, when she was just 45 years old, and the single mother of three children.
Leslie's concern for others caused her to request that a fund be established to research and develop a cure for melanoma. When she died January 14, 2005, she left legacy of the love, admiration and respect of her friends who established Leslie's Fund at TGen to fulfill her request.
If you would like to make a donation to Leslie's Fund, please click here.
