Community Corner

Updated: Casa de Amma Founder Dies, Legacy Lives On

Eleanor Leatherby founded a home for adults with disabilities in 2004 in San Juan Capistrano.

Updated at 2:30 p.m. with information provided by O'Connor Mortuary.

Eleanor Leatherby, the Orange County philanthropist who founded a San Juan Capistrano home for adults with disabilities, died this week. She was 83.

Leatherby nurtured and built  (Amma is Icelandic for "grandmother") along with her children. "She was so sweet. She acted like a grandmother to all of these adults with special needs," said Terry Vorell, the home's director of human resources.

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Casa de Amma, at 27231 Calle Arroyo, was built in 2004 with help from Eleanor's daughter, Joann, and her son, Russ, and his wife, Susie. At the home, caregivers provide vocational, residential and educational opportunities to 35 residents in a private, nonhospital environment.

"For her to create a home for them, and not just a home, but a way of life, a way for them to have friends … it’s huge," Vorell said. "There’s not a place like it."

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Leatherby died April 11. Although her family donated to numerous organizations, an obituary notice from O'Connor Mortuary called the creation of Casa de Amma "one of her proudest projects."

"She has a real heart for everyone, but especially the population with special needs," Vorell told Patch.

Born in 1927 in the Icelandic community of Akra, ND, Leatherby was one of 12 children, the obituary notice said. In 1949, a nursing career brought her to Southern California, where she worked at Queen of Angels Hospital.

Her desire to nurse stuck with her throughout her life. She cared for others including her mother, her aunts and her husband, Ralph, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease and cancer.

"Eleanor was very proud of her Icelandic and North Dakota heritage and often told stories of growing up on the farm with her large family. Coming of age during the Depression and World War Two, she never forgot her roots, tough times and her beloved family," the obituary notice said.

Vorell said Casa de Amma residents, whom Eleanor knew by name and sent birthday cards to each year, were saddened by her death. "She was just all about family and love."

That philosophy of caregiving will be continued by her children, who are still involved at the home. "We have actually kind of set it up under her philosophy so it will carry on," Vorell said.


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