Eleanor Eleanor Augusta Dunbar Lyda of 1055 Soco Road, Maggie Valley, NC died Tuesday, April 19, 2005 at the Franke Nursing Home, Charleston, SC. Mrs. Lyda was 101. Cause of Death: age related respiratory complications. On her 101st birthday in March the Franke Home celebrated Mrs. Lyda as their oldest living resident. Memorial services will be held Saturday (4/23) at Frank Home at 11 AM with graveside services on Sunday at 11 am at the Garrett Hillcrest Memorial Park in Waynesville, NC by Garrett Funerals and Cremations in Waynesville, North Carolina. She was born in 1904 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the fourth child of seven, to parents Mary Yarborough Miller Dunbar and Leroy David Dunbar. She was predeceased by all of her siblings: Emmala Reed Dunbar LaBranche, James Yarborough Dunbar, Caro Mae Dunbar Pugh, Leroy David Dunbar, Jr., Mary Allen Dunbar Langdoc Provence, and sister, Georgia, who died in infancy. She leaves no children of her own, but is survived by three generations of 24 nieces and nephews, from North and South Carolina to New York and California. She attended Fassifern School and Rollins College in Florida. At 20 she visited New York City, stayed there, and worked at Bergdorf Goodman which included modeling for their rotogravure. A first marriage to Donald S. Pine ended in divorce. She was later married to Lonnie Lee Lyda of Asheville, North Carolina and lived in California, Ohio and in 1945 moved to Maggie Valley, where Mr. Lyda served a term as Mayor and the Lyda's built their home on 4 acres dubbed as Critter Hill . Mrs. Lyda was widely recognized as possessing an original sense of humor: quick, irreverent, deft, and to the point. When Mrs. Lyda was in her late 80's, area residents met to protest a tourist helicopter venture over Maggie Valley. Objecting, Mrs. Lyda pointed out that the helicopter flights might deter her from nude sun-bathing in her own backyard. Applause and laughter followed; the venture did not fly. Burial will be in the Garrett-Hillcrest Memorial Park. Arrangements have been entrusted to Carolina Memorial Park Funerals and Cremations in Charleston, SC and GARRETT FUNERALS AND CREMATIONS IN WAYNESVILLE, NC.

Published by Charleston Post & Courier on Apr. 22, 2005.