Ellen Warren Leone

It is with great sadness that the family of Ellen Warren Leone announce her passing on Dec. 27, 2022. She was born in Philadelphia, PA on July 26, 1938, to Evelyn and Tarbet Warren. She was a loving daughter, sister and wife, and an extraordinary mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and great grandmother.

She attended Springfield HS where she excelled in sports, music and writing. She was the captain of the field hockey, basketball and softball teams. Moreover, she was an editor of the school newspaper and had a Sunday column in the local newspaper. She played the clarinet and went to state band two years and was a member of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra.

After high school, she attended Endicott College and later transferred to Boston University where she majored in Journalism. While on spring break, she met her future husband, Chuck Leone, a medical school student. They met when a Time Life photographer asked them to sit together on the Fort Lauderdale beach for a series of photos, which were published in the spring break edition of the magazine in April 1958. They were married within a year.

After Chuck’s graduation from medical school, they moved to Chuck’s hometown, Erie, PA, to start an internship and surgical residency. With his being drafted during the Berlin Crisis, they were uprooted to Kelly AFB. There, she joined an art group and painted many admired pieces, one of which hangs above their fireplace mantle.

Her next stop was Columbus, OH where Chuck took his residency in Ophthalmology. Following the completion of his residency at Ohio State University, they moved to Philadelphia, PA and Birmingham, AL where he completed fellowships. After finishing his medical training, she and Chuck moved back to San Antonio. Ellen became involved with a flower arrangement group as well as the Bibliophiles Book Club.

Ellen’s passion was travelling which took her from the Amazon Jungle to the Great Wall of China and many countries in between. She travelled the breadth of China to Pakistan and through the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. Along those adventures, she rode elephants and camels, handled large snakes, crawled through Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam and ate all kinds of bugs and peculiar local cuisine. On one of her trips, she fulfilled her nomadic spirit by travelling completely around the world.

Ellen’s other interest was tennis. Besides playing tennis with many of her friends and hauling her children and many others to tennis tournaments all over the state for many years, she was president of the San Antonio Tennis Association, a board member of the Texas Tennis Association and sat on a number of committees of the United States Tennis Association. Her active involvement with the USTA meant annual trips to the US Open for meetings and watching the best tennis players in the world compete. She also had some of the best international youth players stay at her house when travelling through San Antonio. Her service to the tennis community along with her children’s involvement in competitive tennis led to the family being named the USTA Texas Tennis Family of the Year in 1985.

Ellen is survived by her loving and devoted husband of 64 years and their four sons, Charles (Madelon), Jeff (Beverly), Randy (Ginny) and Phillip, as well as five grandchildren, Austin, Lauren (Randy) and Russell, Warren and Christiana (Charles) and two great grandchildren, brother and sister-in-law, Craig and Catherine Warren, sister-in-law, Janis Warren, brother-in-law, Buddy Reed, cousin, Ted Lauper and many other relatives. She is preceded in death by her parents, Evelyn and Tarbet Warren, parents-in-law, Jessie and Charles R. Leone M.D., brother, Kenneth Warren and sister-in-law, Judith Leone Reed.

Ellen will be dearly missed by her family and friends. A private memorial will be held at a future date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to a charity of your choice.