Cm/sgt Lemmie M. Pendley Jr.

CMSGT Lemmie "Lem" M. Pendley, Jr. USAF (RET), 81, husband of Iradean Edwards Pendley, of Moncks Corner, SC, died Friday, October 1, 2010.

Mr. Pendley was born and raised in Calhoun, GA.  His father, Lemmie M. Pendley, Sr., died a few days before he was born and his mother, Pearl Brown Pendley, died when he was around age 7.  He was raised by his grandparents, Lewis and Julia Brown.  He attended Antioch School when it was a two room grammar school; after the school burned down he attended Red Bud School and graduated from Oostanaula High School, Calhoun, GA in 1946. He assisted his grandfather in farming during childhood and after graduating high school he worked at Cannon Cotton Mill, Dalton, GA and the City of Calhoun, Shannon Mills and Sears in Atlanta. Lem joined the US Air Force in January 1948 and took basic training at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, TX.  He remained at Lackland and worked Incoming Processing, meeting all trains and buses to greet new enlistees and escort them to the base.  When the Korean War broke out, he left Lackland to open Sampson AFB, Geneva NY. Lem married Iradean Edwards in 1951. 

In 1952 he was assigned to Tachikawa AFB, Japan. Upon returning to the US he was again assigned to Lackland AFB. He was a member of the base softball team which won the Air Force World Championship's in 1955 and 1956. Other stations were HQ TTAF, Gulfport, MS where his son Steve was born in 1956, then to Eglin AFB, Ft. Walton Beach. FL.  While stationed there he was a member of the Consolidator Base Personnel Office (CBPO). As NCOIC of the Data Control Systems of CBPO, his was one of the first USAF Personnel Offices assigned the task to develop initial computerization of personnel and finance records.  He left Eglin AFB with his family in November 1964 and headed to Chateauroux AFB, France. When all US bases were closed in France he was transferred to Spangdahlem AFB, Germany.  When he returned to the US he was assigned to Charleston AFB. In lieu of assignment to Vietnam, Lem elected to retire from the US Air Force in 1969 with an enlisted grade of CMSGT (E-9). During his career he received numerous awards including "The Meritorious Service Award" and three "Commendation Medals". He started Pendley Homes, Inc., in 1972 and built approximately 400 custom homes in the Charleston area and retired from homebuilding in 1994.  As a longtime active member of Berkeley Country Club in Moncks Corner, and while being a member of the Board of Directors, he assisted in design and construction of the current Club House.  His hobbies were genealogy, golf, fishing and gardening. 

He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Iradean Edwards Pendley. He was preceded in death by his son, Steven L. Pendley. Survivors also include a daughter-in-law: Denise Pendley of Summerville, SC; three grandchildren, Brandon Robert Hawkins and his wife, Crystal of Moncks Corner, SC, Tara Nicole Pendley and Michael Steven Pendley, both of Summerville, SC and three great grandchildren: Taylor, Cooper and Ellie.

The funeral service for Lem will be held in J. HENRY STUHR, INC., NORTHWOODS CHAPEL, 2180 Greenridge Road, N. Charleston, Friday, October 8, 2010 at twelve o'clock. Interment will follow at Carolina Memorial Park.  The family will receive friend at Stuhr's Northwoods Chapel Thursday evening from six until eight o'clock.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Steven L. Pendley Memorial Scholarship Fund at Pinewood Preparatory School, 1114 Orangeburg Road, Summerville. SC 29483.