Dr. Dianna Murphy

MURPHY - Dianne Sue Cornell Murphy of Waleska, GA died Sunday, February 20, 2011 at age 58. Born May 10, 1952 at Elmholm Hospital in Cobleskill, NY, she was the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Lyndon B. Cornell of North Blenheim, NY. During her junior and senior years at Gilboa-Conesville Central School, she was named an Outstanding Teenager of America by an organization based in Chicago; she graduated as class president and valedictorian in 1970. In 1974, she was one of six summa cum laude graduates in a class of 865 candidates at Plattsburgh SUC, earning a BA. degree in biology. In 1978, she received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, becoming the first alumnus from GCCS to do so since its inception in 1931. She did her 4-year residency in pathology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. An active student in music at GCCS and in her community, she was a band member and school choir accompanist, and also the organist at two local Presbyterian churches in No. Blenheim and Breakabeen until entering college. She spent two college summers as an Appalachian Leader for Community Out-Reach, working from Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Knott County, KY, teaching children while living in Garner with a local couple, Mr. & Mrs. Ivan Childers, who became second parents to her. Following her marriage and the addition of her own three children, she became a surrogate mother through Cross Connections in Atlanta to a badly deformed 7-year-old child from El Salvador, Saul Ventura Palomo, who endured multiple surgeries while with her and her family from March, 1998 through April, 1999. For a time, she volunteered at a nearby medical clinic, as well as becoming doctor in residence at Fellowship Christian School where her children attended. She cared lovingly for her mom-in-law, Loraine Murphy, for a year in she and her husband’s own Marietta home. She was a member of East Cobb Presbyterian Church; an enthusiastic pottery maker; an avid photographer, using her photographs to fashion Bible Scripture greeting cards; an expert in the use of yarn and needle and floss. Her elaborate and complex skills resulted in beautiful paintings hanging in homes of relatives and friends and in her own. She shared a love for horses and riding with her daughter, Sarah. She was predeceased by a very special aunt, Phyllis Dewell Clapper at age 37 in 1966; her next-door grandparents Everett and Evelyn (Safford) Dewell in 1993 and her father Lyndon B. Cornell in 1995. Survivors include her former husband of 27 years, Hugh R. Murphy of Marietta, GA; her children, Rachel Joan (Josh) Hyder of Landrum, SC, Matthew Cornell Murphy of Tampa, FL and Sarah Loraine Murphy of Athens, GA; a year-old grandchild Eve Lavender Hyder and an expected Hyder grandson in May; her mother, Fanchon Dewell Cornell and brother & sister-in-law Lyndon Everett and Marie Cornell of Stonehedge, No. Blenheim, NY; two nieces, Alicia (Bill) Hoesch of Santee, CA and Melissa (Keith) Graham and a grandniece, Larkin of No. Blenheim; first cousins Franklin, Phillip (Fr. .Theophylact), Kevin and Jeannie Clapper. Bonnie, Larry and Jeffrey Cornell, Duane and Janet Banner; and several second cousins; also two very special friends this past year, Patricia Horelick (Proverbs l8:24) and Nancy Hull, leader of her Home Fellowship Group, both of Marietta. A memorial service will be held Sunday, February 27 at. 3 p.m. at East Cobb Presbyterian Church, Marietta, GA. Burial will be next to her father at a service in the Old Stone Fort Cemetery, Schoharie, NY at a date yet to be announced. Northside Chapel Funeral Directors and Crematory, Roswell/Alpharetta, 770/645-1414. www.northsidechapel.com

Dr. Dianna Murphy

May 10, 1952 - February 20, 2011