Ann Beall Leslie

Ann Beall Leslie (Nana), beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend passed away Thursday, December 9, 2021, at Shannondale Healthcare Center in Maryville, Tennessee. She was 91.
Born July 21, 1930, in Columbus, Georgia, the youngest of five siblings to Charles Emmett Beall and Ethel Whitehead Beall, Ann graduated from Jordan High School in Columbus in 1947. She met her late husband, Brigadier General James M. Leslie, on a blind date while he was attending the U.S. Army Airborne School at Ft. Benning, Georgia, and they married in 1954 after his return from serving in the Korean War. Married for 56 years, she supported Jim throughout his career raising a family and serving in many capacities both stateside and overseas.

Members of East Side Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia, she and Jim attended Sevier Heights Baptist Church after moving to Knoxville in 2008. As the wife of a decorated military officer, Ann lived in many locations in the United States and around the world including Ft. Rucker, Alabama; Ft. Knox, Kentucky; Seattle, Washington; Missoula, Montana; Oahu, Hawaii; Washington D.C.; Stuttgart, Germany; and Seoul, Korea.

Ann loved to travel and after settling in at Shannondale, she enjoyed bridge with the ladies, excursions to regional sites, visiting with family and friends, attending chapel, and especially eating out. She loved to recite poetry and songs she had learned in her younger years to her children and grandchildren. An avid reader, she enjoyed historical works about the western United States and read extensively about many of the places she had lived.

She was preceded in death by her son, Richard James Leslie of Port Charlotte, Florida. Ann is survived by her loving daughter, Teresa Ann Leslie Bowman of Knoxville, Tennessee; four grandsons, Matthew D. Bowman, Samuel J. Leslie, Brandon M. Bowman, and Nathan R. Bowman; three great-grandchildren, Ethan James, Henry Miles, and Artemis Ann.

McCammon-Ammons-Click Funeral Home in Maryville, Tennessee is handling the arrangements for Ann’s transfer and burial at Arlington National Cemetery where she will be laid to rest next to her late husband, Jim. Information about the burial service in Arlington will be forthcoming.

“America For Me”
Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933)

Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,
To admire the crumbly castles and statues of the kings,
But now I think I’ve had enough of antiquated things.

So it’s home again and home again, America for me!
My heart is turning home again and there I long to be,
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

Oh, London is a man’s town, there’s power in the air;
And Paris is a woman’s town, with flowers in her hair;
And it’s sweet to dream in Venice and it’s great to study Rome;
But when it comes to living, there is no place like home.

I like the German fir-woods, and green battalions drilled;
I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains filled;
But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day
In the friendly Western woodland where nature has her way!

I know that Europe’s wonderful, yet something seems to lack;
The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back.
But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free,
We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.

Oh, it’s home again, and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that’s westward bound to plow the rolling sea,
To the blessed land of room enough beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars!

Psalm 139:9-10

“If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
Even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.”