W.G. author tells story of angel's guidance in new Chicken Soup book

One of Suzanna Leigh's stories is included in the latest edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

— Local author Suzanna Leigh also is an actress, best known for starring opposite Elvis Presley in "Paradise, Hawaiian Style."

WINTER GARDEN — “Touched by an Angel,” the latest book in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, includes a story by Winter Garden resident Suzanna Leigh. In “Thank You, Lord,” Leigh tells her story of refusing to get on an airplane that later crashed.

Editors liked her story so much, she said, that they put it in the front of the section titled “Divine Intervention.”

In the 1960s, Leigh, now 69, was an actress known for her movie roles, most notably, starring opposite Elvis Presley in “Paradise, Hawaiian Style.” Leigh’s story took place in 1966 when she was scheduled to fly from London to Rome. In the car and headed to the airport, she heard or felt a voice, she said, warning her three times, “Do not get on this plane!”

“I told the driver I wouldn’t be getting on the plane, so he didn’t need to hurry,” Leigh wrote in her published story. “Well, I guess he thought I was just some movie star acting crazy. Perhaps he thought I was on drugs — who knows. But he ignored me.” 

When she arrived at the airport, she told her representatives she would not be boarding the plane and would take the next one to Rome.

“The first inkling I had that anything was seriously wrong was when we began to circle the airport instead of starting our descent into Rome,” she wrote. “The earlier plane had crashed on landing, with a large loss of life.

“I cannot describe how I felt at that moment, except that I kept saying under my breath, ‘Thank you, Jesus, oh, thank you, Jesus.’”

Hers is one of 101 stories of faith, divine intervention and answered prayers published in the new Chicken Soup book.

Leigh said this was not the only time a voice instructed her to do something for the sake of safety. When she was about 22, she was driving her car when she heard a voice saying, “Slow down, slow down now!” She said she skidded to a stop and, at that moment, all four of her tires popped.

Another time, she was standing in the kitchen of her home in Memphis when she received a warning.

“All of my dogs, my beagles, were exploring the garden, and I heard a voice that said, ‘Save Oliver,’” she said. “So, I ran out into the dark, and I was screaming like a banshee, and I found him in the corner with one of these raccoons about to dismember him, and I went charging at him. Amazing things have happened, and I’ve been very blessed in my life.”

The actress was a published author before the Chicken Soup book came out. 

She wrote a book of her own, “Paradise, Suzanna Style,” in 2012, which tells her London-to-Hollywood saga and how her acting career fared once she reached the famous gates at Paramount Studios. 

She has two more books coming out next year: “Footsteps in Paradise,” in which she chronicles her spiritual experiences throughout her life, and “King Travels with Elvis,” which is divided into two parts. The first half is about Presley’s death, or “murder,” Leigh said. 

The second part is a series of stories about her former co-star that she heard at various dinner parties and social gatherings, tales that have only ever been shared in limited company, she said.

She currently is filming a movie in Mount Dora called “Grace of the Father,” Lazarus Filmworks’ modern retelling of the Prodigal Son set on a Florida horse ranch. Leigh plays neighbor Judith Hudson.

Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].