Howard Owen Leach of Jackson passed away at the Highland Home in Ridgeland on Sunday, May 25, 2025. A memorial service was held on June 4, 2025, at Lakewood Memorial Park in Jackson.
Born in 1941 to Howard Franklin Leach and Gladys Roberts Leach of Carthage, Howard attended elementary and high school in Carthage. He earned a B.A. degree in 1963 and a J.D. degree in 1966 from the University of Mississippi.
In 1966-1967 he served as a law clerk to Justices Tom P. Brady and Robert G. Gillespie of the Mississippi State Supreme Court. In August of 1967 he married his sweetheart, Elsie Ladner, in Jackson.
He served on active duty in the U.S. Army as a Captain at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, from 1967-1969, and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Following that, he went to New Orleans to serve in the legal department of Shell Oil Company as a staff attorney. Howard later went into private practice with the Armstrong Law Firm in Hazlehurst, and later served as board attorney for the Mississippi State Oil and Gas Board in Jackson.
Howard belonged to the Baptist church. The Leach family thanks Howard’s caregivers at the Baptist Hospital, Jackson, and Highland Home and Pax Hospice, Ridgeland, for their kind and thoughtful care of Howard.
