Leigh Ann Naylor's Obituary
Leigh Ann Naylor (nee Peschko), Age 65, passed away peacefully on March 8, 2025 at Maria Manor in St. Petersburg Florida
Born October 19, 1959 in Riverside NJ to Lester and Patricia Peschko (nee Weyman), Leigh grew up in rural Vincentown NJ, where she always described she had the “perfect childhood". She found faith at a young age by attending Vincentown United Methodist Church, where she first met her lifelong friend, Jill Inglin.
She loved fishing and was an avid bow hunter, which she learned from her father at a young age on hunting excursions in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The shot gun gifted to her as teenager ager remained a cherished heirloom throughout her entire life and was a symbol of those happy times with her father doing what they both enjoyed most.
While Leigh loved the outdoors, her talents followed her indoors as well. She was an excellent seamstress, a skill she learned from her mother and her grandmother, Thelma (Nanny). She would shed her hunting fatigues and enjoyed getting dressed “to the nines” with jewelry and dresses she would make by hand. She had an artistic eye, a trait she inherited from her mother, and would make the most beautiful crafts she would gift and sell, especially around the holidays.
Not only could Leigh catch and “dress” fish and game, but she had the ability create the most exquisite meals, which would rival Julia Childs, whom she idolized and adapted techniques from through the years.
She attended Lenape Regional High School in Mt. Laurel NJ and took classes at Rowan College in Pemberton NJ. However, most of her knowledge was self-taught and acquired through her love of books and reading. She was unbeatable at Scrabble and while she loved her classic rock, she also had a love of classical music and could identify and give a synopsis of the works of Bach and Mozart by sound.
Leigh pursued a career in clerical and worked at the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Chesterfield NJ for a number of years before moving onto Selective Insurance Company in Trenton NJ, then GE Aerospace in Moorestown NJ
In 2006, she would move to Florida to be closer to her “chosen family”, Jeff and Tony, whose lives she has enriched for 35 years.
She is predeceased by her parents, Patricia and Lester Peschko, a step-mother Eleanor (Cookie) Peschko, and grandparents Stanley and Thelma Weyman. Survived by Sisters Kelly Rentschler (husband Brian Mills) and Susan Peschko, step-brother Kenneth Cook (wife Barbera), several nieces and nephews, and longtime friend/companion Jeff Rada and his husband Tony Rosado.
Mass of Christian Burial will take place at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church at 3747 34th St South, St. Petersburg on Saturday March 29, 2025 at 10:00 AM, officiated by the Reverend Ethan J Cole.
Final internment to take place in a private ceremony at a later date, off the coast of the Jersey Shore which was always a very special place for Leigh.
Leigh was an adoring “cat mom” and lover of all furry friends. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the SPCA of Tampa Bay at spcatampabay.org
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