Julie Ellis Wye

Mrs. Julie Ellis Wye, age 87, of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, passed away Tuesday, November 3, 2020 at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton surrounded by her loving family.

Mrs. Wye was born April 15, 1933 in Checotah, Oklahoma. Her upbringing was austere, as the youngest child of eight raised by a single mother. During the Great Depression, her family was part of the “Great Okie Migration,” ending up in Arvin, California, where Mrs. Wye spent the remainder of her childhood commuting to school in nearby Bakersfield. One of her most poignant early memories was the death of her brother Kenneth in World War II, a ground-shifting loss which inspired her dedication to a life of service. Upon graduating from high school, Mrs. Wye boarded a bus to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert where she secured her first job. It was there that she was wooed by her soon-to-be husband, Roger, and two and a half months after their first meeting, she flew to the east coast to marry him.

Over the following decades the couple moved throughout the country to Philadelphia, PA, Palo Alto, CA, Houston, TX, Fort Wayne, IN, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, and Potomac, MD, finally retiring in Hilton Head, their longest residence. Mrs. Wye worked as a real estate agent, executive assistant, and also volunteered for the Red Cross and Hospice of the Low country. Her passions included travel, tennis, history, and her faith. Not having had the opportunity to go to college, she strived to educate herself and was a voracious reader and observer. Her wit, intelligence, and strength were her hallmark, even in her last days.

She is preceded in death by her mother, Carrie Hogan Priest and father, Walter James Ellis, and her husband of 66 years, Roger Edwin Wye. She is survived by her son, Curtis Cameron Wye, of Clifton, Virginia, and daughters Lori Wye LaMorte of Braselton, Georgia, and Kristin Wye-Rodney, of Houston, Texas. Mother-in-law to Marty, Mike, and Bill, she was the beloved “Nana” to seven grandchildren: Lauren, Roger, Michael, Christopher, Gunnar, Erik, and Juliette. (She fondly referred to her two granddaughters as her “bookends,” both separated by twenty-nine years.) Five great-grandchildren include Inaya, Adam, Mimi, Weston, and Audrey.

A family service will be held in Hilton Head, SC, next summer. Memorial Park Funeral Home East Braselton Chapel 5257 Green Street Hwy 53 Braselton, Georgia. is in charge of arrangements. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research.

Send online condolences to www.memorialparkfuneralhomes.com.