Leila Anne Ackley

Leila Anne Ackley, 91, left us on Christmas day 2024. She was born June 11, 1933, in Hempstead, Long Island, New York. Daughter of George Christopher Turner and Lydia Marie Stacey of Roosevelt, New York. Older sister to Sydney James Turner (dec.) of Oakdale, New York.

Introduced through mutual friends, Leila met Charles Hewlett Ackley on a blind date of horseback riding at Hempstead Lake State Park. Leila graduated from Hempstead High School in June 1951. She married her soulmate and love of her life July 7, 1951.

After living upstate in Schenectady, they returned to Long Island and after several years, finally built a home in Hauppauge, where all 3 of their children were born. Mark Bucknam, Charles “Chip” Turner and Stacey Lee. Moving from Hauppauge to Westbury in November 1963, Charles was then working for the family business of Travel Agenda, Inc. in New York City where, after the children graduated high school, she joined him as office manager for the company.

Travelling globally for business trade shows in countries such as Argentina, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Japan, and Korea; in later years, they would often be joined by their oldest son Mark when the shows were held in the domestic United States. Leila and Charles also enjoyed travelling outside of business with their family and friends throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, as well as returning several times to England to spend time with her father’s side of the family.

The family joined the congregation of the Westbury Asbury United Methodist Church in 1964 where Leila taught fifth grade Sunday school and Charles assisted in the accounting office. They joined the Get Togethers social group where they met lifelong friends and engaged in many shenanigans near and far.

In 1995, while visiting her recently relocated daughter in Colorado, Leila placed a down payment on a house in Lakewood. She returned to Long Island advising Charles they were retiring. They sold Travel Agenda, left Long Island behind in February 1996 spending the next 15 years scouting the West. They spent days driving the Rocky Mountain range finding spots to enjoy lunch, have a stay overnight or even ski.

Leila and Charles returned to the east coast in 2010 to live in Delaware with their daughter and her family. Leila remained devoted to Charles after his passing in 2013, always proudly displaying numerous photographs in her room and carrying framed photographs in her luggage whenever she traveled. She constantly shared stories of his thoughtfulness and kindness.

One of her most cherished items were the electric organs Charles gifted her with over the years. He loved to listen to her sing and play. The piano was integral in her upbringing as both parents played. She would often reminisce about the house parties of her youth when the living room rugs would be rolled up to create a dance floor. Her father would sing and play for hours while friends and family either accompanied him on instruments or sang and danced while she and her brother would hide under the dining room trestle table to watch. The second (maybe third) most cherished item would be her collection of Tom Selleck photos and DVD movies.

Leila was a very dandy Grandy and will be deeply missed by her four grandchildren who adored her - Skyla Lydia, Haley Webb, Alexander Thomas James, and Garrett Charles Hewlett. She was always available for a chat. Always supportive and proud of everything they accomplished from sporting matches, school productions, graduations, as well as other life events in the past and ones occurring in the future that would continue to grow the family and pass down her legacy of love. She would spend hours with them singing, playing board games and cards, watching old movies, assembling jigsaw puzzles, and showering them with love. She instilled in them the joy of life, as she was usually the life of the party. Proving it again on her 90th birthday by bouncing around in an inflatable bounce house with her girlfriends and daughter in law.

Nothing made her happier than having friends and her loved ones around her engaging in laughter and conversation while enjoying a good cocktail.

Leila is survived by her children Mark, Chip and his wife DeAnne Webb, Stacey and her husband George F Maniatis.

Aunt to Gwendolyn “Wendy” (Ackley) Kolomick, Victoria “Vicki” (Ackley) Larson (dec.), Ellen (Ackley) Richman, Christopher Turner, Dawn (Turner) Civitillo, James Turner (dec.), and Kathleen (Turner) Carter.

Cousin to many, here and across the pond.

“For we dance, and we sing, and we don’t care a jot, we’re a jolly fine lot.

We’re alright when we’re tight, and we’re jolly fine company.”

Contributions in Leila's memory may be made to Wounded Warrior Project, woundedwarriorproject.org; and Mill Neck Family of Organizations, millneck.org.