Miss Mary Virginia Hartley age 84, of 308 Bath Street, Clifton Forge, died Sunday, December 6, 2009 at Alleghany Regional Hospital, Low Moor.

Mary was born on October 24, 1925 in Charlottesville, Virginia, the daughter of the late German S. Hartley, MD and Mayme Dillon Hartley.

She grew up loving music , attended a conservatory of music in Chicago, IL and graduated from Mary Baldwin College.

She worked for a music publisher in Chicago for a time and was a concert pianist, but spent most of her life here in the Alleghany Highlands area sharing her love of music by teaching piano lessons to area students.

She was an avid historian of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, the Civil War, and the history of Clifton Forge.

She also enjoyed and supported the arts in this area and was an active member and volunteer of the Alleghany Highlands Arts and Crafts Center in Clifton Forge.

She was a past president of Clifton Forge Woman's Club. She was a faithful supporter of the Griffith Knob Hunt Club, in which her father, brother, and nephew participated and loved.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by three brothers, Harvey J. Hartley, Samuel Hartley, and Robert W. Hartley, MD.

She is survived by a sister-in-law, Mary W. Bowles Hartley of Roanoke; two nieces, Mary Elizabeth Hartley Oldham of Fort Lauderdale, FL and Jean H. Sidden of Tucson, AZ; two nephews, Robert G. Hartley of Portland, OR and Frank J. Hartley of Beaverton, OR; a cousin, Robert Dillon, and many friends here in Clifton Forge.

In accordance with her family's wishes, her body has been cremated.

There will be no services at this time.

Arrangements were handled by the Nicely Funeral Home, Clifton Forge, Virginia.