Judy Elder

Judy Corlew Elder was born on April 21, 1940, in Plant, Tennessee to the late Monroe Dotson Corlew and Martha Waggoner Corlew. At seven years old, Judy and her family moved to East Tennessee where she was raised in Lenoir City and graduated in 1958 from Lenoir City High School.

She worked in an Optometrist office for a short time before moving to Nashville in 1959 where she was employed by Commerce Union Bank in their bookkeeping department.

In 1960, Judy met Wayne and began a three-year courtship and married on May 24, 1963, in Prospect, Tennessee at the home of Wayne’s uncle James H. Elder, a retired Methodist Minister.

Immediately after marrying, they enjoyed a honeymoon in Miami Beach Florida. They returned to Nashville to live at three different locations before buying a house in East Tennessee where they lived until 1969. At that time, they built a new home on Old Harding Road in Fernvale, Tennessee.

She retired in 1970 to raise a family. And in 1971 her first son, Jay, was born and then in 1974 son Gregory was born. In 1979, the family moved to North White Plains New York as Wayne had taken as assignment to work in Manhattan. The family returned to Nashville a year later, but not before enjoying a vacation touring eight New England states.

Her new home was made in the River Plantation subdivision in Bellevue, Tennessee where she later became a member of Bellevue Church of Christ. In 1985, she bought a new home on Myhr Drive in Bellevue. In 2002, she and Wayne purchased a Motorhome and enjoyed traveling for the next 16 years.

Judy remained on Myhr Drive where she resided until suffering any injury from falling in July 2020. After two and a half weeks in the hospital, she then began living at NHC Place at the Trace and left her earthly home on April 23, 2023, to be with her Heavenly Father.

Judy is preceded in death by her parents, Monroe and Martha Corlew; sisters, Donna Charlotte Tatum and Brenda Carolyn Johnson. She is survived by her loving husband, S. Wayne Elder; sons, Jay Elliot (Deborah) Elder and Gregory Alan Elder; granddaughter, Lily Paige Elder; grandsons, Alec Grant Elder and Asher Grayson Elder; brothers, Monroe Dotson (Kathy) Corlew jr. and William Jere Corlew; sister, Lola Gaylor; and special friends, Millie Nygren, Jeannie Lewis, Lori Fann, Deborah Martinez, and Dr. Burton Sanders

The family would like to extend a special thanks to the entire staff at NHC Place at The Trace for their loving comforting care over the past two and a half years to the woman that can only describe as their devoted wife, loving mother, grandmother, and friend to and of many.

A celebration of life service will be at 11:30am in the chapel of Harpeth Hills Funeral Home on Friday, April 28, 2023 with Douglas Varndo officiating. Visitation will be Thursday, April 27 from 3pm to 7pm and on Friday, April 28 from 10:30am until the hour of service. Burial will follow in Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens at 12:30pm.