ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
HER LICENSE PLATE indicated one of the things she believed in: VOTE.
After serving as Roanoke County's registrar for 26 years, Elizabeth Leah was afraid she might not be able to leave her hospital bed on Election Day this year.
But she was determined to vote, so she applied for an absentee ballot.
"I was just going to put it in the mail today, and I can't send it," Diane St. John said Monday, her voice quavering. "I can't fulfill her last wish."
St. John worked under Leah for nearly 22 years and succeeded her in June when cancer forced Leah to retire. Although friends and co-workers realized Leah had to be seriously ill to leave the job she loved, they were surprised and saddened by her death early Monday at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
"When we had a farewell party for her this summer, she looked beautiful," said Ron Adkins, vice chairman of the Electoral Board.
Leah, 53, was best known for her gentle, sunny personality, which she managed to keep intact on Election Days. Earlier this year, she admitted she did get nervous, particularly during her early years in office.
"The thing that got me through it was prayer," she said. "I always had a special prayer when I went to bed the night before that I had done everything properly."
She was active in her church as well as the community, said Roanoke County Supervisor Fuzzy Minnix, a family friend.
"Elizabeth is the kind of person that you like to be around," he said recently. "She would never call attention to herself, but she does a tremendous amount of things in the background, both for the county and the church."
Although she was a quiet, unassuming woman, she discovered the perfect way to get her message out in 1981, when Virginia began issuing personalized license plates. Her tag, which reads "VOTE," was one of her most prized possessions. She never parted with it, even though she was offered money to do so.
Leah was most proud of the fact that during her 26 years in office, the number of registered voters in Roanoke County doubled from 23,000 to 46,000. The highest turnout for an election was in 1992, when 91 percent of all registered voters in the county came to the polls to choose a president. Roanoke County was one of only five localities in the state to top 90 percent.
Leah's family will receive friends from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. today and Wednesday at Lotz Salem Chapel. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Ghent Grace Brethren Church on Maiden Lane in Roanoke. Burial will be at Sunset Cemetery in Christiansburg.
Donations are being accepted in lieu of flowers by the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society and Ghent Grace Brethren Church.
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