Leda Ori Bennett, 92, died peacefully December 15, 2021.
Born September 25, 1929, the native of Barga, Italy, a small town in Tuscany, was the first-born daughter of an Italian steel worker and a knitwear producer.
At 18, having survived WWII, she immigrated to America in the late 1940s, through Ellis Island, before settling in Highland Park, Illinois, with close relatives. Nearby, she found gainful employment working as an administrator for the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois, where she met the love of her life, Julian Brantley Bennett, a Navy sailor to whom she wed in 1952 and with whom she later moved to Waycross, Georgia, where they started a family and shared a joyful 25-year-long marriage.
After the passing of her husband, she devoted her life to raising her six daughters.
In her final years, she moved to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, to be close to family. Motherhood was her ministry, and she took great pleasure in spending time with her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
She also frequently enjoyed cooking, gardening, sewing, fishing, traveling, and volunteering, among other activities.
Leda was preceded in death by her husband, Julian Brantley Bennett, her parents, Annunziata Bernardi Ori and Domenico Ori, her brother, Marino Ori, and her sister, Nadia Peterson.
She is survived by her brothers, Domenico Ori and Walter Ori, and her children, Geneva Darden (Jett), Georgia Lester (Ricky), Juliana Germano (John “Jay” Kaufman), Leila Bennett (Kevin Jackson), Lisa Varn (Kennard), and Christina Bennett, as well as ten grandchildren, Will Bland, T.J. Darden (Erika), John Dukes, Clyde Smith, Constance Knight (Josh), Christopher Germano, (Hillary), Bianca Pope (Preston), Anjelica O’Shea (Daniel), Hampton Keith, and Priscilla Jackson. Her great grandchildren are Aviana and Kaia Bland, Thomas Darden III, Bella Smith, James Knight, Kennedy Germano, Mary, Janie and Juliet Pope, and Samantha O’Shea.
A private service was held in her honour at St. Joseph Catholic Church followed by a private graveside service at Hephzibah Cemetery in Waycross, Georgia.
