ALMENA LEAF RICHARDSON
Funeral services for Almena Leaf Richardson, 96, will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday at St. Paul AME Church, 835 Plowden Mill Road, Sumter, with the Rev. Frederick Graves officiating. Interment will follow at St. Paul AME Church Cemetery.
The public may view from 2 to 6 p.m. today at Palmer Memorial Chapel, Sumter.
Almena transitioned on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, in Washington, D.C.
Born in Sumter County, she was a daughter of the late William Harrison and Lou Ida Singleton Leaf and the wife of the late Albertus Richardson. Almena was educated in the public schools of Sumter County. While residing in Sumter, she was a lifelong member of St. Paul AME Church, where she served on the Williams-Carson Missionary Society, senior choir, pulpit aide and the stewardess board. Mrs. Richardson moved to Arlington, Virginia, and was employed as a hotel housekeeper, until retirement.
In addition to her parents and husband, she was preceded in death by a son, Marion M. Leaf; one grandson, Derrick Bell; six sisters, Julia Pringle, Hattie James, Willie M. Harvey, Blanche Denson, Minnie Barfield and Denia McFadden; and five brothers, Frazier, Ivory, Calhoun, George and Fletcher Leaf Sr.
Survivors include one daughter, Bertha M. Bell; five grandchildren, William Leaf, Linda Brown, Sawney Bell Jr., Anthony Bell and Shirley Leaf; 13 great-grandchildren; 15 great-great-grandchildren; one son- in-law, Sawney Bell Sr., all of Washington, D.C.; and a host of other relatives and friends.