Leila Abbo Craig

Leila Abbo Craig of San Francisco, California passed away on Thursday, February 12th, 2026 at the age of 90. She was born on March 5th, 1935 in Baghdad, Iraq where she grew up in very large loving extended family which was rooted deeply in the Catholic faith. As a child, she was educated by French nuns and became fluent in French, English, and her native Arabic. She also became an accomplished Pianist in her formative years. In 1962 she immigrated to San Francisco and ultimately become a US Citizen in 1973.

Leila continued her education at the University of San Franciso shortly after arriving in the United States, married, and had two sons (Bryan and Vincent) whom she raised with the utmost love, faith, and devotion. Unfortunately, due to a series of unfortunate circumstances which functionally ended her marriage, she became solely responsible for raising and providing for her sons. She was able to give them a grounding in the Catholic faith, and sacrificed greatly to pay the tuition to send them both to 12 years of catholic school, including St Ignatius College Prep. She accomplished this through a tireless work ethic, and personal sacrifice.

Leila worked at numerous jobs over the years, generally accounting and operations related roles, ultimately landing a great job at Bank of America though a very dear friend. She remained a faithful BofA employee up to her eventual retirement. Also notably she launched her own wholesale cake business, Leila’s Spirited Desserts, concurrent with her day jobs, to generate extra money and pay for the high cost of her sons’ tuition. She acquired numerous restaurant accounts, notably the Cliff House of San Franciso and others, who seemed to have limitless demand for her cakes.

Throughout her life, Leila was not only devoted to her extended family, but was a friend to many, in constant contact with many of the St Monica’s moms and neighbors. After her retirement from the bank, Leila spent many years in the Richmond District of San Francisco, visiting with her multitude of friends, relearning the piano, and continuing to be an avid walker, often walking from one end of the city to the other. Notably she also completed the annual Bay to Breakers race. She embarked on a few notable international trips for pleasure and to reconnect with her extended global family. In 2007, she made the difficult decision to move to Austin Texas to be near her son Bryan, his wife, and her grandkids! Her other son Vincent later joined and the San Francisco family was reunited in the Lone Star State! Whereas so many of us are lucky to have only 1 or 2 good friends at a given time, she truly had many and kept up even with friends and relatives on the other side of the country or in other countries, including Canada, Lebanon, France and Iraq.

She is preceded in death by her beloved son Vincent Francis Craig, parents Tawfeek and Adele Abbo, and her many siblings Paulos, Mary, Odette, Angele, Alberteen, and Evelyn. She is survived by her son Bryan, daughter-in-law Susan, two grandchildren Carolyn and Alexander, and many close cousins, nephews, and nieces who now reside in Canada and France.

The family would like to thank our relatives in Canada for being tremendous hosts when she visited them with her US family last year, including Joseph and Josette Raffi, Joseph and Dalal Bahoshy, Marwan, Ola and many others to mention. This trip really meant the world to her. It was not supposed to be the last, but it turned out to be.

Family and friends are invited to attend services at St Thomas More Catholic Church of Austin, Texas at a time yet to be determined. This notice will be updated with those details.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in her honor to St Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, because of this institution’s role in helping guide and shape her sons’ futures.