Lelia L. Hamilton of Westhampton Beach and Chapel Hill, North Carolina Dies March 11

Lelia Lawrence Hamilton, of Westhampton Beach and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, died of natural causes on March 11 at Carol Woods Retirement Community in Chapel Hill. She was 96.

Known to her friends as “Lee,” she was born on December 12, 1926, in Brooks County, Georgia. She was the second daughter of the Reverends William and Lela Lawrence.

She graduated with a B.S. degree in vocational home economics from Fort Valley State University in 1946. In 1951, she joined the U.S. Air Force, graduating from Air Craft Controllers’ School in 1952. She was one of the first six women to work for USAF in that field. While in the Air Force, she met and married Eugene Hamilton, another Air Force officer, in 1955.

The couple moved to Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York, where she taught school, and then to Westhampton Beach, where they raised their growing family.

After divorcing in 1966, she returned to teaching elementary school in Greenport and Riverhead. She instilled in those she taught and in her five children the value of getting a good education and working hard to achieve goals, her family said.

In 1975, she obtained an M.S. degree in elementary education from Long Island University. Upon her retirement from teaching in 1991, she travelled widely and spent many winters in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. In 2009, she moved to Carol Woods Retirement Community in Chapel Hill.

Hamilton was very active in Catholic church activities in New York and North Carolina. She also served on the Board of Directors for New Directions, the Board of Directors for the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, and as vice president of the Quiogue Association. She was a past member of various military, education, and civic organizations, and a lifelong member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

She is survived by her children, Linda A. Hamilton of Lanham, Maryland, Carol H. Bodine (Joseph) of Newark, New Jersey, Jean C. Hamilton (Wayne Miller) of Chapel Hill, Judy L. Hamilton (Stephen Reeves) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and Eugene M. Hamilton (Petya Slavova) of Quiogue; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for the summer of 2023 on Long Island. Her ashes will be interred at the Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton.