DORIS LEAR STALEY

STALEY, DORIS LEAR (DAL) 90 - of Ocean City, went home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on July 11, 2011. Doris was an area resident most of her life. She was a graduate of Ocean City High School. She was a Shore Memorial Hospital volunteer, and active volunteer with the American Red Cross for 50 years, a member of St. Peter's United Methodist Church, a Friend of the Ocean City Library and an active Bridge player for 60 years. She loved to swim laps at the pool and go for long walks as long as she was able. She was a faithful season ticket-holder to the Ocean City Pops every summer. She also enjoyed attending opera and theatre in New York and Philadelphia. Mrs. Staley was a retired antiques dealer. She had antique shops in the Cherry Hill Mall and Haddonfield, NJ. She loved to write poetry ever since she was a child. One of her favorite poems was reminiscent of sleeping at the Alden Park Manor Hotel at Fourth Street and the beach, a hotel her father, Robert Lear, built during the Great Depression: "The Ocean is a special thing. It has a happy song to sing, of sun and sand and castles tall, and waves that break and make them small. At night when I lie down to sleep, there is no lullaby quite so sweet as the sound of the sea." Survived by her daughter, Karen Staley of Atlanta, GA; sons Robert Stone and wife Phyllis, of Ocean City and John D. Staley, Jr. of Charlotte, NC; and sister, Louise Lear-Hastreiter of Atlanta, GA; and niece, Roberta Hastreiter-Heady of Atlanta, GA. Services are private. Arrangements made by the George H. Wimberg Funeral Home of Linwood.