Selma "Sis" Leslie

Selma "Sis" Leslie, age 105, passed away November 10, 2024, at Woodmont Health Campus in Boonville, IN.
Today we celebrate Sis, 3 weeks prior to what would have been her 106th birthday. She was born December 3, 1918, and graduated from Lynnville High School in 1936. On November 11, 1937, she married Harold "Red" Leslie, whom she met at a Lynnville restaurant.
Sis and Red moved to Boonville, where they had a big and meticulously groomed garden for many years. Sis used or canned the produce that she and Red needed and sold the rest. Being very knowledgeable about plants and seeds, Sis provided garden seeds for much of the neighborhood.
Sis was a worker! From her job testing cream for a milk company during high school to pumping gas, cleaning windshields, and changing oil at a gas station during WWII to working for several years at Maier Hardware. (The gas station had no uniforms, so of course, Sis made her own.)
Sis wasn't a drinker but on summer evenings you might find a crowd at their house, enjoying the best home-brewed beer on the block. Many of the neighborhood kids considered Sis and Red's house to be their second home, where they could play or have a snack – especially watermelon in the summer.
When Red had a stroke, Sis cared for him at home for many years before he went to a nursing home, where she visited him every day. Sis loved animals and had many cats and dogs as a child and adult. After Red's death, she could be seen driving around for hours, checking out City Lake, Scales Lake, or old county roads with her cat, Miss Kitty, purring in the passenger seat.
Sis loved craft fairs, search & find puzzle books, and jigsaw puzzles (almost always having a jigsaw puzzle in some state of completion on her glassed-in front porch).
After 82 years in the home on 7th Street, Sis moved to Woodmont in 2019, which is where she lived until her death.
Selma is preceded in death by her husband of 70 years, Harold "Red" Leslie; parents, John & Anna Kleiman; brother Victor Kleiman.
She is survived by her niece and nephew, Sheila & Don Wilhelmus; niece Mary Ann Huffine and many great nieces and nephews.
The family would like to thank Woodmont Health Campus for the exceptional care they provided for Sis and her nieces Mary Ann Huffine and Sheila Wilhelmus for their care. Also, Yvon Lauren, Barbara Snyder, Rhonda Sander, and the friends and neighbors who helped Selma live independently in her home until past the age of 100.
A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday, November 15, 2024, at Bradley's Colonial Funeral Chapel 1005 E. Main Street Boonville, IN. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. until service time with burial to follow at Maple Grove Cemetery.