- Date Of Birth: November 21, 1927
- Date Of Death: May 7, 2019
- State: Illinois
Lyle S. Corey, 91, passed away at his residence in the Colonnade Senior Living center, O’Fallon, Illinois, on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. He was born on November 21, 1927, in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, the only son of the late Ralph S. and Helen (Peet) Corey. Lyle grew up in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, where he attended Green Dreher schools. World War II took his family to Philadelphia, where he graduated from John Bartram High School in 1945. Before he formally graduated from high school, he joined the U.S. Navy in March 1945. After completing boot camp in Bainbridge, Maryland, he attended his high school graduation in his navy uniform. He served at Willow Grove Naval Air Station, Pennsylvania.
Lyle was a man of many talents and occupations, and he believed in community service. He could yodel and play the guitar, which his grandchildren recorded and put on YouTube. He was a dairy farmer who milked his cows by hand and farmed with horses; a machine shop foreman; a heavy equipment operator; a heating oil delivery man; an emergency medical technician; and an electronics specialist at Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pennsylvania, from which he retired in 1989. He was a commander of the Newfoundland Phillips-Zacharias-Phillips American Legion Post; a captain and instructor for the Newfoundland Area Ambulance Association; president of the Greene Dreher Sterling Fair Association; and a lay leader at the LaAnna United Methodist Church.
After retirement in 1989, he and his wife, Irma, moved to St. Augustine, Florida, where they became hospital auxiliary volunteers and Lyle used his EMT training in the emergency room. His last community activity before moving to Illinois was as a St. Johns County auxiliary deputy sheriff.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife, Irma (Duffield) Corey, who he married on June 28, 1947. Also, two sons, Thomas and David Corey; his sisters, Vera Newcomer and Dolores “Peggy” Logan; and an infant grandson. Surviving are daughter, Kathleen (Benjamin) Nevin of O’Fallon; son Steven (Lenore) Corey of Huntsville, Alabama; twelve grandchildren; twenty-nine great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
