Alma Orr Cordle

Alma Orr Cordle, a resident of The Seabrook, Hilton Head Island, SC died on February 24, 2017, about two months before her 104th birthday. Alma was born in Charlotte, NC on April 12, 1913, the oldest child of N.J. Orr and Mittie Bradley Orr. Members of the Orr family have been in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County since before the Revolutionary War. She graduated from Derita High School in 1930 and from Queens College in Charlotte in 1934. She met her future husband T. Llew Cordle at a youth meeting at Charlotte’s First Baptist Church in summer of 1933. They were married at that church on August 5, 1934. Before moving to Wagon Road in Sea Pines Plantation in 1978, Alma and Llew raised five children in Charlotte, first on Ridgewood Avenue and then on Hermitage Court: Thomas Llewellin Cordle, Jr. (Shelia) of Tarboro, NC; Robert Bradley Cordle (Casey) of Charlotte, NC; Rachel Alma Cordle Thiessen of Marion, IN; Harriet Anne Cordle Doughty (Rick) of Charlotte, NC; and Laura Elizabeth Cordle Miller (Jim) of Mooresville, NC. All the children, 15 grandchildren, and 21 great grandchildren survive her. Her husband Llew died March 25, 2003. She is also survived by her longtime chief care giver at The Seabrook, Verna Lowe-Ellis. Llew and Alma enjoyed their retirement on Hilton Head, participating in many activities, and being members of the First Baptist Church of Hilton Head Island. Active Democrats, they worked the polls even though they claimed to be the only Democrats in their precinct. They volunteered at the HHI hospital and library. Both played tennis at the Sea Pines Club, Alma playing until she was 94. Alma enjoyed participating in her book clubs, her bridge clubs, her Bible Study groups, the Red Hat Club, the American Association of University Women, and pulling for the basketball and football teams at Davidson College and the University of North Carolina. A Memorial Service will be held in the Auditorium of the Seabrook at 2:00 pm on March 24, 2017. A reception will follow in the Seabrook Living Room. Burial will be private for the family. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in memory of Alma to the First Baptist Church of Hilton Head Island, 100 S. Forest Beach Dr., Hilton Head Island, SC 29928; to the Alma Orr Cordle Scholarship Fund, Queens University, 1900 Selwyn Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28207; or to Compassus Hospice and Palliative Care, 10911 N. Jacob Smart Blvd. Suite B, Ridgeland, SC 29936. Sauls Funeral Home of Bluffton is assisting the family.