Leslie Bowman Marcus

July 5, 1951 — May 29, 2012

Leslie Bowman Marcus, 60, a resident of Woodland since 1992, died of pancreatic cancer on May 29, 2012. She was born on July 5, 1951, in Oakland. At age 4, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. She would not let the disease defeat her and experienced a full life and great improvements in the treatment of diabetes.

She graduated from Piedmont High School in 1969 and still had many high school friends. She received a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from UC Davis in 1973. Over the years, Leslie worked as Sacramento campus coordinator at Golden Gate University, as a trainer and telecommunications manager at Kaiser Hospital in Sacramento, as a personnel consultant for small businesses, and finally, for seven years, in Woodland, as a paralegal and director of the Fair Housing Hotline Project of Legal Services of Northern California.

Starting out as an opponent of the Vietnam war, Leslie always was a political activist. She cared deeply about affordable housing, served on the board of Community Housing Opportunities Corporation in the 1990s and worked with the City Council and staff in Woodland to pass the ordinance that requires construction of affordable housing in new developments in Woodland. She helped the Democratic Party all her life, running the party headquarters in Woodland in 2008. Her last political effort was as campaign treasurer in the successful bipartisan effort to raise the sales tax (Measure V) in Woodland in 2010.

Leslie has always had an active Christian faith and knows that she passed away wrapped in God’s arms. She was a lifelong Episcopalian, obtained theological training from the four-year Education for Ministry program of the University of the South, and served for five years on the Commission on Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California. She ended her life as a member of the parish church where she grew up — St. John’s in Oakland, which her parents still attend.

She married Bill Marcus, the love of her life, in 1985 and had a long and happy marriage. She had fun traveling with her husband in the U.S., Canada and, particularly, in Europe, enjoyed her home in Woodland and loved spending time with her family, particularly her nieces and nephews as they grew from childhood and came into their own as young adults.

Leslie is survived by her husband, her parents, Thomas and Margaret Bowman, her brothers, David Bowman (wife Gloria Miller) and Jim Bowman (fiancée Beth de Jarnette), her sister Shelley Andrews (husband Don), her sister in deep friendship Ximena Bustamante, seven nieces and nephews, a grand-niece, and grand-nephew, and many friends.

There will be a memorial service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 1707 Gouldin Road in Oakland, CA 94611, at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 16. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Yolo County Food Bank, 1244 Fortna Ave., Woodland, CA 95776; St. John’s Oakland (address above); the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2454 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94706; or the charity of your choice. Kraft Bros. Funeral Directors is assisting the family with arrangements.