Alice Leather went to meet her heavenly Father on April 4, 2013 in Dallas, Texas, just one month shy of her 98th birthday. She was born on May 20, 1915 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, one of three daughters born to Mabel and Ernest Banker. She attended art school in Paris, France and studied at the Sorbonne for two years until World War II broke out and forced her to return to the United States. She then continued her commercial art education in New York City, studying under Norman Rockwell. Upon completion of her studies, she went to work at J. Walter Thompson Advertising for their children's publication Jack and Jill. On June 4, 1944, she married the Reverend Jack Leather, an Episcopal priest and World War II Marine, and thus began a 54-year journey working in churches in Massachusetts, Buffalo, New York, Oklahoma City, and Midland, Texas before retiring with her husband in the Southern Diocese of Ohio. She is preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, Jack, her sister Jane Gelfand and husband Henry, and brother-in-law Bob Gerhard. She is survived by her daughter Ernestine Chipman and husband Bill of Irving, Texas, her daughter Anne Leather and partner Steve Young of Dallas, Texas, and her younger sister Ernestine Gerhard of Cincinnati, Ohio. She loved making her cloth dolls and her English smocking to sell all over the U.S. and loved traveling to the Texas Gulf coast and Jefferson in east Texas. She especially enjoyed her Starbucks coffee. The family would like to thank all of Mother's friends at Churchill Estates retirement community for taking such good care of her and making sure she had fun. We especially would like to thank the folks at the C.C. Young hospice unit for making Mother's final weeks comfortable and peaceful. There will be a private funeral on April 9, 2013 in Marietta, Ohio, where she will be laid to rest along side her husband. The Marietta Chapel of Cawley & Peoples Funeral Home is handling services for Alice's family, and offers online condolences by visiting their website, www.cawleyandpeoples.com . Donations can be made to the SPCA of Texas, the Visiting Nurses Association's Meals on Wheels or the charity of one's choice. "For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then I shall know, even as I am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12). Rest in peace, Mother. It was a great run.
