Jimmy W. Farley, M.D., of Roanoke, passed away Monday, December 8, 2008 after battling cancer for twenty-two months. He was born April 7, 1931, in Herndon W.Va. and is the son of the late Jay Ward Farley, Sr. and Laura Blankenship Farley. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Jerry and Betty Farley, of Bluefield, Virginia; and sister, Pauline F. Payne, of Roanoke, Virginia; a special friend, Diana Thomason, of Salem, Virginia; and many friends and his cat, Mister Bojangles. He grew up in Bluefield, W.Va., graduating from Beaver High School and served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. He graduated from the University of Virginia and the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia and specialized as an ophthalmologist at the McGuire Veterans Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. He practiced ophthalmology in Roanoke and Christiansburg, Virginia from October 1964 until January 2007. He and Dr. Ronald W. Dillon organized the Crippled Children's Eye Clinic in 1969 and co-directed it until 1976. Dr. Farley is an active member in the Lakeland Masonic Lodge # 190 and the Kazim Shrine Temple in Roanoke, Virginia. Funeral services will be held 1 p.m. Wednesday, December 10, 2008 from the Burns Wornal Chapel of the Memorial Funeral Directory on the Athens Road in Princeton. Burial will follow in the Monte Vista Park Cemetery, in Green Valley. The family will receive friends Wednesday from 12 noon until the service hour at the funeral home. Family and friends may share online condolence via www.memorialfd.com. Friends of the family will serve as pallbearers. The Farley family is being served by the Memorial Funeral Directory & Cremation Center on the Athens Road in Princeton.
Published in Roanoke Times on December 9, 2008