Wilda "Billie" Leach

Wilda Jean (Swain) Leach passed away peacefully in her sleep at home surrounded by family at the age of 91 on December 7, 2018. Known most of her life as “Billie,” she was born on March 25, 1927, in Franklin County, Ohio, to Kathryn Elizabeth Perdue Swain and Robert Mitchell Swain.

Billie was one of three girls known as the Swain sisters, who grew up in Columbus, Ohio and went to West High School there. Their home was a gathering place that was always open to their friends and neighborhood kids. The sisters, DeDe, Vivian, and Billie, were very active and well-known in their community. As the youngest and as a bit of a tomboy, Billie was very close with her father Robert, while their mother Kathryn was busy keeping the older girls’ social calendar full.

In 1948, Billie accepted a marriage proposal from her future husband, Joseph P. Leach, then the youngest mayor of the United States at age 25 in Sharonville, Ohio. Billie finished college at Ohio State University and got married a few days later, their wedding taking place on July 31, 1949. (Billie’s father gave her a toolbox for her wedding present that she used for years to come, fixing things in her home, just as her dad had taught her). For their honeymoon, the newlyweds packed up their Roadster and drove across country to California, where Joe Leach had a position awaiting him as city manager of Redondo Beach.

Billie became a school teacher at Dapplegray Intermediate School in Rolling Hills Estates as the couple settled into a historic home in the South Bay’s Redondo Beach by the ocean, known to all as “The Brown House.” After welcoming two children, Cathy Anne (Cat) and Joseph Kevin, the family moved from Redondo Beach to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and eventually Joe became city manager for Rolling Hills Estates. Billie stayed home to raise the kids until returning to the Palos Verdes Unified School District as a substitute teacher, librarian, and later, to work in records and the testing and evaluation department at the district offices. She lived in her Rolling Hills Estates home until her final days. She also helped raise two of her four grandchildren in the family home, a hub for 3 generations of family members.

Billie had a varied and interesting life. Her son, Kevin, played golf from an early age, so family vacations were worked around golf tournament weekends. Many happy memories came from those fun family road trips. Aside from working in the Peninsula community, Billie also played bridge for several decades and had a weekly bridge night with three close friends. After her husband Joe passed away in 1985, Billie took to traveling, and was able to journey to Asia. Later when her daughter Cat moved to Mendocino, Calif. and had two children, Billie would grab a girlfriend and take a spontaneous road trip to the northern coast of California in her trusty Honda Accord, driving herself there in all kinds of weather, ever the intrepid traveler. Billie is survived by her daughter, Cat Spydell, and her son, Kevin Leach and his wife, Caroline, and her four grandchildren, Kodiak Spydell, Cassidy Spydell, Cameron Leach, and Connor Leach. She will be greatly missed.