Around Lexington and out in the county, if you mention the name, Cornelia, most everyone would think of Cornelia Morris and have memories of her serving them at one of the Lexington banks. Sadly, Cornelia Tignor Morris passed away Monday, February 14, 2022. Visitation for her life celebration will be Thursday February 17th from 11 am to 8 pm and Friday February 18th from 10 am to 2 pm. Funeral services will be 2:00 pm Friday, February 18th in the chapel of Pafford Funeral Home with Dr. James Huggins officiating. Interment will follow in the Unity Cemetery, just outside of Henderson County. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to The Gideons International.
Cornelia was born on Saturday, February 1st, 1941 in Chester County to the late Earl Howard and Louise Mullins Tignor. She was a member of the 1959 graduating class of Lexington High School and in 1960, started her fifty-nine year career in the banking industry. Cornelia, over the course of her lifetime, worked with nearly every bank in Lexington, and many customers would follow her whenever she changed roles or banks. She and her close friend, Carol Johnson, oversaw a program at Caywood Elementary called Kitty Cash, which taught children the value of saving money. Throughout all those years, she served a large civic role as well. She was a member of the Lexington Rotary Club and honored as a Paul Harris Fellow. Cornelia also served on the Habitat for Humanity board. In addition, she and her husband were former owners of the Food Basket on Highway 22 South (now Major Market) and Tignor’s Trailer Park. Her primary focus of her life was always about her family. She was a great cook and known for her chocolate pies and duck dressing. You could always count on her cooking a big lunch for all her family after attending church at Unity Baptist where she was a long-time member.
She married her childhood sweetheart, Ranny Joe Morris in November of 1960 and celebrated sixty-one years of marriage together. He survives her, as well as their two sons: Mark Tignor (Debbie) Morris and Stephen Ranny (Kelly) Morris; two grandchildren: Andrew Morris and Ashley Breeden and her sister-in-law, Jeannetta Tignor. Besides her parents, Cornelia was preceded in death by her only sibling, Howard Wayne Tignor Sr.
