LeeAnn Sample Reigart

LeeAnn Sample Reigart, age 60, beloved wife, daughter, mother and sister, passed away peacefully at her cottage in Awendaw on June 16, 2017.
She was from Saluda, South Carolina, born on April 2, 1957 to Esther Irick and Thomas Gardner Sample. LeeAnn had a very close and loving family. Her sister Neal was by her side and a quiet source of strength throughout her life and over the past year. She attended and graduated from Saluda High School in her hometown. While in high school, she was an enthusiastic cheerleader, elected Homecoming Queen, and a member of Mount Pleasant Lutheran Church. LeeAnn's childhood and lifelong best friends, the ridiculously loyal YAYA sisters, shared love and laughter throughout the years.

She graduated from Appalachian State University with a BS degree in Sociology, and later earned her nursing degree from the University of South Carolina. Her nursing career spanned over 30 years, including service as a psychiatric and home health nurse. She served her country as an active and reserve duty nurse enlisted in the US Air Force. Most recently, she worked with the Nephrology Clinic at MUSC, where her colleagues were another family to her. LeeAnn had an extreme talent for brightening the days of patients and co-workers by eliciting laughter at the most unexpected times.

On October 28, 1988, she gave birth to her only son, Nash O'Neall Welch. She married her husband Jay on April 21, 2001 and gained another son, James Chandler Reigart, Jr. and a daughter, Caroline Elizabeth Reigart. The family was featured in a televised documentary on the Family Network demonstrating how to successfully blend a combined family (despite experiencing their share of challenges).

LeeAnn has always been a giver and a lover of her neighborhood communities and active at the Church of the Holy Cross. Strong in faith, she served on a medical mission trip in Peru. LeeAnn loved and fostered fellowship with several social groups, including her Ladies of the Lake, the Awendaw book club, and the Pluffmudders Boat Club. LeeAnn also founded her popular (but seldom profitable) commercial enterprise, Parties on the Run. It was seldom profitable because she tended to offer her services just for fun. She was a fantastic hostess and event planner who created a party wherever she went and put people at ease with her kindness and a smile.

LeeAnn was an active runner, regularly running with the Holy Molies (the Holy Cross running group), the Charleston Running Club, and the Hash House Harriers (with whom she drank and ran). She completed two full marathons, one in Dublin, Ireland in near tropical-storm conditions. She traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Hasher's Inter-hash where the H3 was founded. LeeAnn completed over thirty states in her quest to run, bike or hike in all "fifty before sixty."

When LeeAnn and Jay moved to Awendaw full-time, she wanted to be sure to get her run in on Thanksgiving Day. She organized a community event, the Fried Turkey Glide, beginning in 2011. The first run had five participants and concluded with Wild Turkey whiskey shots. This past year the Fried Turkey Glide included more than 400 participants and raised over $4,000 for the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation. Her family will continue this annual event in her memory.

She is survived by her mother, Esther; her husband of 16 years, Jay; their children, Nash (Stephanie), Caroline and Chandler; her siblings, Neal (Dennis), Thomas (Connie); her favorite niece, Claire, and nephews, Dylan and Thom, as well as many cousins, aunts and uncles, who all love her dearly.

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at the Church of the Holy Cross, 2520 Middle Street, Sullivan's Island, at 4:00 p.m. with a reception following. The family will greet friends Monday, June 19, 2017 at J. Henry Stuhr, Inc., Mount Pleasant Chapel, 1494 Mathis Ferry Rd. from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for memorials to the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation (NPCF), P.O. Box 1848, Longmont, CO 80502.