Charlotte King Leeper

Charlotte Suzanne King was born on September 8, 1946 in post WWII San Antonio, Texas to Wes and Rosie King. Her first home was in the apartment Rosie had lived in during the war while Wes was overseas. It was the upper story of an historic house in the King William district of San Antonio. One evening while Rosie was preparing for a dinner party, she had Charlotte swaddled in a blanket and propped in a drawer in the kitchen. One of the dinner guests came in and exclaimed “Oh, I didn’t know you had a puppy!” The next day Charlotte had a brand new crib.

Wes quit his position at Kelly Field as an aircraft inspector and went into business for himself and the little family went with him. Over the next five years Charlotte lived in Saltillo, Sulphur Springs, Paris, Monohans, Dumas, Borger, Pasadena and finally moved to Houston, Texas in 1950 where she would attend school. Charlotte loved to dance and she took tap and ballet classes during her early years. Rosie made all her costumes. When she was still in elementary school she memorized “The Night Before Christmas” to recite over the intercom system school wide. She remembered it all her life and would recite it for her daughter and later her nieces every Christmas Eve after the milk and cookies were put out for Santa. It was a well loved tradition.

Charlotte attended Spring Branch Middle and Memorial High School for her freshman and sophomore years. She then attended Judson High School in Arizona for her junior and senior years. At that time the dorms at Judson were not air conditioned and she learned if you soak your top sheet in water, it will keep you cool all night and be dry in the morning when you wake up. She also learned enough to graduate. Her graduation present was a 1965 baby blue Mustang with white leather interior.

She married her high school beau and they moved to his home state of Indiana where she learned to drive with snow tires. After several winters “Up North”, she decided it might be better to be back in Texas.

Charlotte was always a hard worker in every endeavor. Her field was accounting and she especially appreciated the irony of her daughter Wyndi being born on April 15th.

Not unlike her father, she went into the heavy equipment business but she went to work for his competitor All-Tex Crane Rental. She worked for George and Randy Speaks for 26 years. As you would imagine she was very close to George, Nancy, Randy, Karen and their families.

Charlotte was an excellent cook. She enjoyed cooking, but her real talent was making something wonderful out of nothing. On one particularly unsuccessful spring turkey hunt, she put together a feast from what ever was in the pantry to feed a crowd of hunters. Her pineapple soufflé has become a family tradition. We can all make it now, but we are left wondering who is going to make the potato salad.

Charlotte was a great mother, she and Wyndi were devoted to each other and they had the most special relationship. They enjoyed eating out, antiquing, watching movies and traveling together.

She was a great pet lover and she always had a pet. Starting with her goldfish named Friday who froze solid in a mason jar in the back of her Dad’s 1947 Buick, he thawed and came back to life. Other pets included her parakeet named Rodan, her turtles Maximillian Shell and Admiral Shelly, her beloved black cat Pywacket and Pewter Tam the Scottish Fold kitten she waited years for, and had to pass an interview to aquire. Forget what you know about cat people, Charlotte redefined the term.

Halloween was Charlotte’s favorite holiday. She loved anything scary - movies, murder mysteries, voodoo dolls, tarot cards, gargoyles and Stephen King Books. One of her favorite trips was when she and Wyndi went to Salem, Massachusetts to see the witches for Halloween. She loved to travel. She went on several trips with her Mom and sisters to Louisiana and Mississippi touring plantation homes and museums. She loved antiques, the old south and the French quarter. No trip was ever complete without mint julep, a dinner at Brennens and a visit to a Voodoo Shop. Her niece recalls one summer vacation where her family had the pleasure of “diving deep into the French Quarter for a unique souvenir for Charlotte – a petrified chicken foot fresh from Voodoo Central”. We later learned that she would threaten deadbeat clients with her vast assortment of Gris Gris and Voodoo paraphernalia. Her love for New Orleans started early with family trips for Mardi Gras. Being the eldest of three sisters, it was Charlotte’s idea for her and Pat to hang their youngest sister Anitra from the balcony of the Royal Orleans hotel in order to catch more Mardi Gras beads. They had a pretty good pile of beads when they realized the crowd was looking up and pointing at them. This caught Wes and Rosie’s attention, who from the sidewalk below realized that was it was Charlotte and Pat dangling Anitra upside down by her ankles.

Preceded in death by her father William Wesley, she is survived by her mother Rosie, daughter Wyndi, her sisters Pat and Anitra, her brothers-in-law Doug Lockin and Paul Wood, her nieces Celeste, Julia, Mercedes, and Tressa and her cat Pewter.

The internment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donation be made to the American Cancer Society at www.cancer.org. Please submit the following information with your memorial gift: Charlotte Leeper, 11911 Longleaf Lane Houston, Texas 77024.