John Leslie Doss Jr.

Decatur

Funeral services for John Leslie Doss Jr., 82, will be Friday, November 18, 2011, at 3 p.m. at Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church in Decatur. Visitation will be from noon until the service at the church with a private interment in Decatur City Cemetery. Roselawn Funeral Home directing.

He was preceded in death by his parents, John Leslie Doss Sr. and Leah Lucille Doss; his wife, Janie Will Fincher Doss and their twins, Janie Lynn Doss and John Leslie Doss III. He was a steadfast, loyal, and loving father to his daughter, Ann Doss Smith; his son, John Fincher Doss and his grandchildren, McCauley Doss Smith and Ann Leslie Smith, all of Decatur. He is also survived by his son-in-law, James M. Smith.

Leslie graduated from Riverside High School, Decatur, in 1944, The University of South, Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1948 and The University of Alabama School of Law in 1954. After law school, he served in the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps and met his future wife, Jane, while stationed at Ft. McClellan in Anniston. He returned to Decatur in 1957 to practice law with Hon. Edwin Breland. He was elected Morgan County Solicitor in 1962 and to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1966. He practiced law in the State and Federal Courts of North Alabama for 54 years, making his last court appearance only one day before entering the hospital for his last illness. Leslie was a friend and confidant to his fellow attorneys and a fixture at the Morgan County Courthouse.

Pallbearers will be Judge Glenn E. Thompson, Judge Steven E. Haddock, Judge David J. Breland, Judge David H. Bibb, Hon. Carl M. Cowart Jr., and Hon. Bingham D. Edwards.

Honorary pallbearers are Hon. Robert H. Harris, Dr. Lynn Naylor and Dr. Scott Matthews, Hon. Robert Burrell and Mr. Eric Redus.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Marie Young RN Bone Marrow Fund c/o Decatur General Hospital, P.O. Box 2239, Decatur, AL 35609. Checks should be made payable to "LifeSouth/Marie Young RN Bond Marrow Fund."