Eleanor Lewis Corley

Eleanor Beard Lewis Corley, known to all as Kit Corley, died at her home in Pittsboro on Monday, September 12, 2022, at the age of ninety-two.

She was born in Whitmire, in Newberry County, South Carolina on January 25, 1930, to the late William W. Lewis, a banker, and Ann E. Hatton Lewis, an editor and publisher. She attended Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina and was graduated with a degree in Journalism.

She was married for nearly sixty-six years to Col. Robert Joseph Corley, Sr., U.S. Army (Ret.), who died April 20, 2018. She was also preceded in death by her parents, her two brothers, William W. Lewis, and Robert Lewis, and her two sisters, Ann H. Lewis, and Elisabeth Lewis Crutchfield.

In the more than six and a half decades of her marriage she handled every aspect of more than twenty relocations of the family, all over the world, including Taipei, Taiwan, and Clark Air Base in the Philippines, all while caring for her three children and supporting her husband in every aspect of his career. She studied Modern Greek at the Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California in preparation for an assignment in Athens, Greece, attached to the American Embassy. During her husband’s tour in Korea and two tours in Vietnam, she handled all the logistics and child rearing on the home front.

After her husband’s military career, when he took up a position as Assistant Superintendent for Planning and Operations for Spartanburg School District 7, Kit would spend the next thirty years in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where she was active in the First Presbyterian Church and served as President of Corley Enterprises, Inc., (CEI), a consulting firm she founded with her husband after he retired from public service for a second time. CEI advised school districts throughout South Carolina on school construction.

She is survived by her daughter Ann Corley Silverman, an artist with homes in Chatham County, North Carolina and Columbus, Ohio, and her husband Allan Silverman, a philosophy professor; her daughter Elisabeth Lewis Corley, a writer living in Chatham County, North Carolina with her husband, theatre director Joseph Megel; her son Robert Joseph Corley, Jr., an engineer who lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife Cindy Jones Corley, also an engineer; her granddaughter Elena Hatton Silverman, a doctoral candidate in education, of Columbus, Ohio; her grandson Alexander Martin Silverman, an executive chef, and his wife Brittany Koenig Silverman, a nurse, also of Columbus; her granddaughter Logan Elise Corley, a veterinarian in Arden, North Carolina, her grandson Steven Daniel Corley, a student of physics and tutor in Mountain View, California; two great grandchildren, Leon Silverman and Lillian Silverman; and numerous nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, and great-great nieces and nephews.

She sincerely appreciated the assistance of Team Kit, the caregivers who surrounded and supported her in her last years, so that she could continue to enjoy her home and her birds and flowers.

There will be a private memorial service at a later date.

In lieu of flowers the family suggests that memorial gifts might be offered to StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance, 204 Harland’s Creek Drive, Pittsboro, NC 27312 https://www.piedmontperformancefactory.org or a charity of your choice.

Condolences may be made at www.donaldsonfunerals.com

Donaldson Funeral Home & Crematory is honored to serve the Corley family.