Margot Sommerville Schley

Margot was born in Glascow, Scotland and spent her childhood in London, where her father was editor of a Fleet Street newspaper. She remembered going into an air raid shelter, night after night, while the Germans bombed London during the Blitz. In November, 1940, her mother took her and her younger sister to their grandparent’s home, in Paisley, Scotland, for the duration of the war. She was educated at St. Columba’s, in Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire. In 1952, she came to America to visit her father who had emigrated. It was planned for a short visit, but she loved the South and she stayed. She took a job at the British Consulate in Atlanta. Before long she met Philip who was in Medical School at Emory University. Within a month they were engaged. They were married on the 13th of October, 1956, in New York City, where her husband was an intern at Bellevue Hospital.

Dr. Schley was inducted into the United States Air Force, and was assigned as a Flight Surgeon to a fighter wing in Suffolk, England. They had an idyllic four years in Europe, travelling extensively. Two of their four children were born while there. On returning to America, they completed his training and came back to Columbus to open his practice.

Margot loved her house, St. Elmo. She was a collector and she filled her house with books, paintings, pictures, Persian rugs and antique furniture. She was dedicated to her garden. Most of the magnolias, azaleas, camellias, and gardenias at St. Elmo were planted by her. She loved flowers, and for years worked with others to arrange flowers at her church. She volunteered with Contact, and spent many, many nights there, on the telephone, giving counsel to troubled callers with her lovely slightly-British-accented voice. She had close friends. The Saturday Girls, and others, will miss her. She was a life-long reader and scholar. Her Junto papers were well thought out and written. In 2010 Margot was named Honored Lady at the Heritage Ball by the Historic Columbus Foundation, and was given the Sarah Turner Butler Heritage Award for her work in restoring a number of old houses.

Especially, she loved her family: children, grandchildren, and the numerous members of her husband’s extended family. She was predeceased by her son Philip T. Schley, Jr. She is survived by her husband and her children: Georgia Schley Ritchie (Diff), Robert Sommerville Schley, and Margot Hightower Schley, as well as her seven grandchildren and her sister Robina Ross Howell in England.

The family will receive friends at St. Elmo, 4 to 6 o’clock, Sunday, 7th June. A graveside service is planned for 11 AM at Linwood Cemetery Monday, 8th June. Flowers would be welcome; rather, the family suggests a donation to the Flower Guild, Trinity Episcopal Church, 1130 First Avenue, Columbus, Ga. 31901.