Julia Corley Fish

Julia Corley Fish passed away peacefully at home on Friday, July 18, 2025, just two days shy of her 84th birthday. Born on July 20, 1941, in Mexia, Texas, Julia was raised in Austin, where she spent the majority of her life.

Julia was a graduate of Austin High School and the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. A few years after college, she was introduced to the love of her life, Laurens B. Fish Jr. The two were married and settled in Austin, where they raised their two children, Elizabeth and Laurens B. Fish III.

On November 4, 1989, after a long battle with kidney disease, she received the gift of life through a kidney donation and transplant. For the next 36 years, her “Kidney Birthday” was joyfully celebrated. Not a year went by without Julia praying for and remembering her donor and his family. She lived with an enduring optimism, even in the face of significant health challenges.

Some of her favorite things included spending time with family, black labrador retrievers, Port Aransas, coastal birds, mornings in a deer blind, antiquing, and needlepoint. She loved to entertain family and friends, and made life fun for those around her.

Julia is preceded in death by her parents, Frances Barton and Jack Corley, and her brother Jack Barton Corley. She is survived by her husband Laurens; her sister Carol Corley Nelson; her daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Jim McCoy; her son Laurens and daughter-in-law Melanie; and five grandchildren: Merritt, Lawson, and May Fish, and Jake and Burke McCoy. She is also survived by her niece Rebecca Davis; nephews Tom Nelson, John Nelson and his wife Kristen; and numerous cousins. The family is deeply grateful for the loving care provided in her final years by Paul, Mary, Rose, and Mellie.

A funeral service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 22 at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin. The service will be livestreamed at gsaustin.org. A private family burial will be held at Austin Memorial Park.

Memorial contributions can be made to The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd gsaustin.org, Trinity By The Sea Episcopal Church in Port Aransas www.trinitybythesea.org, or Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church in Fort Worth ctrfw.org.