C Allan Kerley

Mr. Clarence Allan Kerley, 95, retired well-known Columbia businessman and resident of Terrace Drive, died Friday, September 17. 2004 at Maury Regional Hospital. Funeral services will be conducted Monday at 11:00 a.m. at Oakes & Nichols with Dr. Carl Duck, Rev. Jim Collins, Dr. William Kerley and Howard Massey officiating. Burial will be in the Polk Memorial Gardens. The family will visit with friends Sunday from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the funeral home. Notes of sympathy may be sent to www.oakesandnichols.com. A native of Portland, Tennessee, he was the son of the late C. W. Kerley and Edna McNeill Kerley and graduated from Portland High School. He attended Middle Tennessee State University and later the College of Commerce of Bowling Green University, from which he earned both B. A. and B. S. degrees.While attending school in Murfreesboro, he met his future wife, Lyda Styles. They married in Murfreesboro on October 21, 1930 and celebrated seventy years together prior to her death on January 31, 2001. After college, he taught in his former high school for four years before entering the family retail business which his grandfather, father and uncles opened in 1902. When he moved to Columbia in 1943, he continued to work with his father and brother in the family business, Kerley Furniture Company on the Courthouse Square. Mr. Kerley was a long-time member and Deacon of First Baptist Church. He was instrumental in organizing and a charter member of the West End Baptist Church, where he served as an active Deacon past his ninetieth birthday. In 1936, he joined the newly organized Rotary Club in Portland and served as President in 1942-1943. In 1943, he joined the Columbia Rotary Club and immediately became active, serving as Secretary/Treasurer in 1944-1945 and held numerous offices and served on many committees. He was President in 1948-1949, the year the Club celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, attended three international conventions and visited many other Rotary Clubs over the years. For many years, he inducted new members into the club and will be fondly remembered for this charge to other members when referring to the Rotary wheel symbol: "Never break a spoke or slip a cog." Mr. Kerley had fifty-five years of perfect attendance in the Columbia Rotary Club and was honored as a Paul Harris Fellow. He truly epitomized the Rotary motto:"Service above self." He was a member of the Columbia Masonic Lodge #31 and a York Rite Mason. Survivors include two sons, Dr. William Clarence "Bill" (Sherry Beeman) Kerley of Houston, Texas and David Allan (Joann Fitzgerald) Kerley of Signal Mountain, Tennessee; a sister, Frances Kerley Viar of Columbia; three grandchildren, Douglas (Cindy) Kerley, Cynthia Joann Kerley and Sabrina (Ron) Hallett; three great-grandchildren, Nada Joann Varner, Bridget Hallett and Rachel Hallett; a great-great-grandchild, Maya Varner. Active pallbearers are Virgil Moore, Kenneth Knox, Knox Surles, Charles Tisher, Dr. Harry Helm, Ray Burt, Joe Ford and Cecil Johns. Honorary pallbearers include Bill Summers, Dr. John Simmons, members of the Columbia Noon Rotary Club and Deacons of West End Baptist Church.