Thelma Oretta Cornish, who retired as a supervisor for the State Department of Education, died of Parkinson's disease May 24 at Magnolia Hall Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Chestertown. She was 83.
She was born and raised Thelma Oretta Murray in Salem, Dorchester County, and was a 1937 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School in Cambridge.
"She was the eighth child of 14. Her parents were farmers, and her father was also a minister," said a niece, Lauretta Freeman of Worton, in Kent County.
Mrs. Cornish earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education in 1941 from Delaware State College and a master's degree in elementary and secondary education from Temple University in 1948.
She taught elementary pupils in Calvert County public schools for 17 years before joining the State Department of Education in 1965 as supervisor of adult education. She retired in 1979.
Mrs. Cornish, who had lived in Washington for many years and moved to Worton last year, was an avid reader. She also enjoyed attending the theater and traveling.
She was married in 1949 to Thomas Nebo Cornish, a chemist, who died in 1999.
Mrs. Cornish had been a member of Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Hurlock United Methodist Church, Main Street in Hurlock.
Mrs. Cornish is survived by three brothers, Hayward Murray, Floyd Murray and George Murray, all of Cambridge; two sisters, Lula Washington of Worton and Vera Brockman of Denver; and many nieces and nephews. Her stepdaughter, Barbara Chichester, died in 1998.
