Leslie Graves

Leslie was born on March 28, 1944 at Creston Community Hospital in Creston, Iowa. Her parents were Keith and Louise Mathers. Leslie had one brother, Jeffrey David Mathers. Jeffrey was in the United States Navy and is now deceased. Leslie attended Lincoln #1 School for nine years. It was one mile from the family farm and was one room. There were four girls and one boy in the class. That was considered a large class for one grade in a one room school. Of course, there were other grades there also. She was also active in 4-H and UMYF and many church activities. Leslie graduated from Creston High School in 1962. She went to work at Bankers Life Insurance in Des Moines, Iowa after graduation and worked there when she met Danny Graves on a blind date. Kyle, the oldest son, was born in Des Moines. They lived in different locations because of Danny's work. They had Kade Graves when they lived in the Omaha, NE area. She worked at Metropolitan Life Insurance and Pittenger Real Estate while living in Broken Arrow, OK. Pittenger Real Estate handled the foreclosure of FHA properties.

For several years they would go with others from their church to Baldwin, Louisiana to do volunteer work for UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief). They would put together kits that were shipped to the devastated areas throughout the world. There were sewing kits, school kits, flood buckets etc. Sewing kits contained material to make a dress along with scissors, sewing needles and thread. There were also other types of kits. They would put together items for flood buckets too. They remained there until they retired and moved to the Austin, TX area to be near Kyle and his wife, Susan.

Shortly after moving to Elgin, TX, on Fridays, Leslie and Danny made sack lunches for the day workers once a month. They did that for several years. It was called Church on the Street. The day workers would come to the Veterans Park and pick up lunches before going to their jobs.Then they would wait until someone would come by and tell the workers what they needed for whatever task they needed to do the jobs. The jobs would cover a variety of tasks. Many were farm type tasks.

Leslie felt blessed to meet so many people that were a blessing to know and enriched her life.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Leslie's memory to the First United Methodist Church, 216 W. 3rd Street, Elgin, TX 78621 or the Capital Area Parkinson's Society, P.O. Box 27565, Austin, TX 78755.