Isabel McLeod (1915-2015) of Bay Minette by way of Atlanta, died in her sleep Monday morning at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Asleep was not her natural state. In her 99 years and seven months, she had set foot on every continent except the North and South Poles.
Her last five years at Belmont Village were spent travelling the world by the printed page and entertaining family, friends, and Villagers with recollections of Africa (her favorite continent), China, Afghanistan (her favorite country), Russia (where she wouldn’t give up her Bible), the Galapagos Islands, Peru, Israel, the Gobi Desert (couldn’t hear a sound for 300 miles) and the Borneo Islands (where she broke her leg).
Just name some country and Isabel McLeod set foot there. She had one regret — she never invaded Nepal. How could they have kept her off Mt. Everest?
She left behind four nephews, Mickey, John, Calvin and Lamar Logue. Their wives, Glenda, Helen, Mary Jo and Nina were even closer to Isabel, treating her like a “younger” sister.
Isabel was proud of her heritage. Her father, Dr. John Calvin McLeod, practiced medicine in Bay Minette for 65 years and delivered 4,000 babies. Her mother, Virginia Hand McLeod, was an artist, singer and poet. Her late sister, Polly Logue, was a distinguished pianist. Her late brother, John Jr., was a successful medical internist and astonishing speaker of the French language.
Isabel taught the sixth grade of school, first in Bay Minette, where she rode her horse, Nonnie, to school every day. Then she taught in Fairhope, then in Danville, Va. and finally in Atlanta. She was teaching in inner-city Atlanta when integration came about, which she welcomed. Her favorite Atlanta friend, to her dying day, was a black male teacher across the hall, who often stopped by Belmont to revisit old times. His name vanishes with the departed Isabel.
The phone just rang. It was another relative telling a favorite Aunt Isabel story. “Do you remember, when she was in her 40s, that she rode a regular bicycle from Texas to Guatemala by herself? She stopped at night and knocked on the door of some house in the middle of nowhere, and asked in her halting Spanish if she could spend the night. And no one ever refused her. Not in Mexico. Or Central America. Not anywhere.
A graveside service open to family and friends will take place Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, at 1 p.m., at Bay Minette Cemetery.
A reception will follow at Norris Funeral Home in Bay Minette.
Arrangements by Cremation Society of Georgia, Atlanta.
