Willis "Convoy" Leslie, 72, of Pine Bluff, died
March 10, 1998, at Jefferson Regional Medical Center.
He was born on November 12, l925, at Springdale, a son of the late Grover Cleveland
Leslie and Josephine Ellis Leslie.
He received his early education at Fordyce, where he graduated from high school.
He played football at the school. He attended and graduated from Arkansas A&M
College, now the University of Arkansas at, Monticello, where he was named
as an All American for the football team. He received his master's degree from
the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He returned to Monticello to coach
the football team from 1950 to 1959.
During World War II, he served in the Merchant Marines and then the Army Air
Corps. He served in the Arkansas National Guard after the war and was called
to active duty dunng the Berlin Air Lift. He served in the militaIy for 42
years and retired as a colonel.
He was appointed by the governor as a property and physical officer for the
Army and Air National Guard from 1982 until 1985.
He moved to Pine Bluff in 1960, where he was a special agent for Hartford Insurance
Company until 1982.
He was a member and an elder at First Presbyterian Church, where
he was clerk of the Session. He was a commissioner from the church to the Arkansas
Presbytery and served on the Policy Committee of the Presbytery. In recent
years, he gave the church technical support for computer programs.
Survivors include his wife, Oralee Bryant Leslie, whom he married on August
25, 1948, at Fordyce; a son, the Rev. Bill Leslie of Warren; a brother, Kenneth
Leslie of Texarkana, Texas; and two grandchildren.
The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church with the
Revs. William Lee Kinney and Bill Leslie officiating.
Graveside services will be at 1 p.m. Friday in Oakland Cemetery at Fordyce
by Ralph Robinson & Son Funeral Directors.
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