Henry Sayles

Henry Halsey Age 91, a lawyer with Sayles Evans until joining the legal staff of Corning Inc., died Tuesday, March 16th, at Highland Farms in Black Mountain, NC. One of a long line of Elmira attorneys, Mr. Sayles was born January 27, 1913 to Halsey Sayles, named partner of the Sayles Evans firm and well known Elmira civic leader, and Julia Day Sayles. His father was the son of Ellen Boardman Smith Sayles, herself a leader here, whose father was Judge Horace Boardman Smith, a Supreme Court Judge and member of Congress, and whose grandfather was Judge B. Nathaniel Smith. Mr. Sayles attended Elmira Public Schools and Lawrenceville School in New Jersey from which he graduated in 1931. He went on to Cornell University where he was a member of Chi Phi fraternity, a Cornell Crew, and graduated in 1935. He attended Albany Law School from which he graduated in 1938. He was with Sayles Evans firm from 1938 to 1951 except for service in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1946. During the war years, he served as a gunnery officer on a Liberty Ship with assignments in the Atlantic and the Pacific. He was discharged with the rank of Lieutenant. Mr. Sayles joined the legal staff of Corning Inc. in 1951 and was elected Assistant Secretary in 1952. He served in a similar capacity for the Corning Foundation and the Corning Museum of Glass. After retirement in 1972, except for a brief periods in Binghamton, NY, and Jekyll Island, GA, he has lived in Western North Carolina. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Virginia Lauder Sayles of Highland Farms, Black Mountain, NC; his sister, Ellen Sayles Tifft of Elmira; four daughters, Julia Sayles of Washington, DC, Molly Zak of Santa Cruz, CA, Marjorie Shew of Stockport, OH, and Carolyn Chojnacki of West Hamlin, WV; ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Instead of flowers, the family suggests gifts to Hospice or the charity of one's choice.