April 12, 2026, 52, RONES CHAPEL NC – Leigh Beavers Best, 52, passed away early Sunday morning, April 12, 2026, at her home.
A service to remember Leigh will be Friday, April 17, at 6:00 p.m. at the First Pentecostal Holiness Church of Mount Olive. Officiating will be Pastors Jeff Dail and Terry Coates. The family will greet friends and relatives following the service in the church’s fellowship hall.
Leigh was a life-long resident of the Rones Chapel community near Mount Olive. She graduated from North Duplin High School with the class of 1992. Leigh had attended East Carolina University, the University of Mount Olive, and Cape Fear Community College. She had worked at Southern Produce, Southern Bank and Trust Company, had been a substitute schoolteacher, and had worked in the family business, M and B Towers. Her main goal in life was providing a loving and welcoming home for her family.
Leigh was a trooper, a real fighter, for her life brought about many hurdles, but she never gave up. At the age of eight, she was diagnosed with liver cancer, which through extensive treatment and God’s grace, she overcame. In her early 20’s, it was discovered that her cancer treatment had damaged her heart; therefore, in 2002, she underwent a heart transplant, which sustained her life for seven years. In 2009, she underwent a heart and kidney transplant which allowed her several more years to enjoy life and her family. While she recently faced a decline in health and multiple hospital stays at Duke, just weeks before her passing she was diagnosed with liver and pancreas cancer.
She leaves behind her loving family which includes her husband, Kenneth Wade Best; her daughter, Alyssa Caroline Best;
her parents, Roy and Rose King Beavers; her brother and sister-in-law, Andy and Billie Jo Beavers, all of the Rones Chapel area; several nieces and nephews who she loved very much; and several aunts, uncles, and cousins, along with many friends.
Her grandparents were the late Arthur and Rachel King, and Roy Bruce and Helen Beavers.
Leigh and her family were and are deeply indebted to the donor families who, through unselfish giving, gave Leigh a life in which to love, be happy, and to make a difference in the world. Therefore, they prefer that memorial gifts be made to Donate Life NC, 4750 Commercial Park Court, Clemmons, NC 27013, or to The Outlaw Foundation, PO Box 189, Newton Grove, NC 28366. For those who wish to send flowers, the family prefers plants and small cut arrangements, items they can enjoy in their respective homes.
The Best and Beavers families extend a special note of deepest appreciation to ECU Hospice and Home Care, especially to Leigh Ann Underhill and Brandi Ivey for their exemplary care, love, and devotion.
