Memorial service for Linda C. Leslie will be 2:00 p.m. Saturday, February 25, 2023 at Centenary United Methodist Church, Lawton, Oklahoma, with Rev. James Graham, Pastor officiating.

Longtime Lawton resident retired elementary school teacher and elementary librarian Linda Leslie passed away on Sunday, January 8, 2023 in Denton Texas, due to complications from a stroke. She was 81 years old.

Born Linda Charlene Rogers, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on May 9, 1941. Linda was the daughter of Jimmy T and Olivia (Appleberry) Rogers. Her early years were spent in and around Grady, Warren, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

After graduating from Pine Bluff High School in 1959, Linda attended Henderson State Teacher's College (now Henderson State University) in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. It was there that she met Joe Leslie of Salem, Arkansas. They were married on August 25 ^th , 1962. Linda graduated with a BSE in Elementary Education the following year.

Though she and Joe divorced in 1982, they remained friends until his death in January of 2022.

To say that Linda loved children, and the teaching of children, would be an understatement. She was mother to two of her own – Marie (Snider, of Denton, Texas) and Joseph (Jody Leslie, of Northlake, Texas), and Bonus Mom to every teenage friend of theirs who ever crowded around her dinner table. In her 33 years with Lawton Public Schools, first in the classroom and later in her role as a District Librarian, she mentored, mothered, and taught thousands of elementary students in Lawton/Ft. Sill. After her retirement in 2007, she worked for several more years as a Title One reading and math tutor at Edison Elementary.

A lifelong Methodist, and longtime member of Centenary United Methodist Church, Linda was active in many areas of church life, at various times teaching Sunday School, leading Vacation Bible School, sponsoring the youth group, and playing in the handbell choir. She served on the church Administrative Board, Council on Ministries, Finance Committee, Staff-Parish Relations, Centenary Care Ministry, and was a Lay Delegate to Annual Conference.

Linda is survived by her brother, Mike Rogers and wife Leslie, of Aijic, Jalisco, Mexico;  daughter, Marie Snider; son, Jody Leslie and wife Cassie; grandchildren, Rachel Snider of Providence Rhode Island, Sarah Marcum and husband Patrick of Corinth, Texas, James Snider of Fall River, Massachusetts, Nathan Held and wife Chloe of Des Moines, Iowa, and Madison Leslie of Northlake, Texas; great-grandchildren, Chloe O'Donnell, Niko Steinmetz, and Lily Marcum; and Children by Choice Chris and Annick Webb of Lawton, Oklahoma.

Memorial contributions can be made to Heifer International, or to the general fund at Centenary United Methodist Church in Lawton, Oklahoma.