Leila B. Alson, popular speech coach, author, and lecturer, dies at 92

Leila B. Alson, 92, of Las Vegas, a popular speech coach, author, teacher, and lecturer died Saturday, March 13, of a brain tumor at home.

Drawn her entire life to the sound of language and the use of words, Mrs. Alson lived and worked in Broomall and Philadelphia for more than 40 years. She helped business and political leaders, children, athletes, teachers, salesmen, and others improve themselves through speech.

Beginning in 1992 and until recently, she operated her own coaching business, Alson Power Speaking.

Mrs. Alson taught speech and language classes at Temple University, West Chester University, and Hunter College, and lectured at, among other places, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Florida Atlantic University.

Speech, she said, is more than just the words that come out of your mouth.

“People make judgments as to your intelligence and ability based on how you sound,” Mrs. Alson said in a 1992 article in The Inquirer.

Helping people improve those judgments was Mrs. Alson’s goal, she said. She began her career in 1954 in her home office in Broomall, helping local children who stuttered or struggled with other speech defects.

Eventually, she opened an office in the old Benjamin Franklin House on Chestnut Street, and her clientele grew to include, among others, boxing champion Meldrick Taylor, former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr., and former Eagles players Andre Waters and Greg Brown.

“She wanted to help people be able to tell their stories,” said her daughter, Beth.

Mrs. Alson focused on helping clients refine accents, smooth speech patterns, and recognize obstacles to clarity and correct pronunciation. She said in 1992 that her business boomed once people heard themselves on those newfangled telephone answering machines.

She used mirrors so clients could see how their lips moved to form certain words, and repetition of new drills to break old speech habits. She broke words into syllables, syllables into sounds, and corrected poor body posture and improper breathing techniques.

She stressed the importance of pauses, created several YouTube videos that explained her philosophy, and was featured in more than a dozen newspaper and magazine articles. In 2009, she and Doug Kalajian published, Say It Again! A say-it-yourself guide to the most commonly mispronunciated words.

Mrs. Alson was born Jan. 8, 1929, and grew up in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. She graduated from high school when she was 16 and earned a bachelor’s degree at Hunter College and a master’s degree in speech-language pathology at Ohio University.

She originally planned to be a journalist, but a captivating college speech class led her instead to a study of the spoken word. She was especially motivated to help people with intellectual disabilities so they could pursue meaningful employment.

She met Robert Alson at Hunter College. They married in 1950, had daughter Beth and son Stuart, and set up house in Broomall. Robert Alson died in 1978.

She moved to Society Hill Towers in 1980 and married Sheldon Teller in 1984. They moved to Boynton Beach, Fla., in 1993. He died in 2013.

Mrs. Alson liked to cook gourmet dinners, travel, play tennis, and write and direct plays for community theater. She doted on her granddaughters, Rebbekah and Hillary, and was the first in her family to embrace computers.

“She had a great life-work balance,” said her son. “She worked hard and played hard, and was very independent her whole life.”

She even became a certified emergency responder in Florida as an 80-year-old so she could help out during hurricanes and other disasters.

“She was always trying to help people,” her daughter said. “She wanted to make everyone’s life better.”

In addition to her daughter, son, and granddaughters, Mrs. Alson is survived by three great-grandchildren, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

A service was held on March 22.

Donations in her name may be made to Gilda’s Club Westchester, 80 Maple Ave., White Plains, N.Y. 10601.