Leslie E. Jerls

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Leslie Eva DeBusk Jerls, 67, died March 29, 2011, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

The St. Louis native was born July 23, 1943. She was an active member of Rich Pond Baptist Church in Bowling Green and served as church secretary under Dr. Robert Browning in the early ’80s. She was also a member of the church choir, an active worker for church committees and was a dedicated Sunday school teacher for many years. She lived her life with a strong Christian faith and she displayed her belief in everything she did. Along with her husband, Gary, she raised her children and her granddaughter in a Christian home filled with love, strong Christian values and with the Lord being our first priority. She was a living example of this every day. She was a daughter of the late Milton A. DeBusk and Ruby DeBusk of St. Louis. She married her childhood sweetheart, Gary D. Jerls, on Aug. 11, 1962, in St. Louis. They were married for nearly 49 years. She was preceded in death by two older brothers, Jerry DeBusk of Oklahoma and Dale DeBusk of St. Louis.

Funeral is at 10 a.m. Friday at Rich Pond Baptist Church. Visitation is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Johnson-Vaughn-Phelps Funeral Home and begins at 9 a.m. Friday at the church.

Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to Rich Pond Baptist Church Building Fund in memory of Leslie.

Survivors include her husband, Gary D. Jerls; children, Kimberly Marie Jerls Lauderdale of Warrenton, Mo., and Gary William Jerls of Los Angeles; and a grandchild, Aaron Elizabeth Richmond of Bowling Green.