When Sallie Magyer walked into a room, you instantly knew she was there. Not that you could spot her 4-foot 8-inch frame in a crowd, but her personality lifted her head and shoulders above others, family members said.
“She just drew people to her,” said Eddie Magyer, her husband of 32 years. “She had a chemistry about her.”
Mrs. Magyer, then Sallie Corley, met her husband when she worked at the Big Star grocery store in Roswell. Her identical twin sister, Susie Corley Beasley, worked at a different grocer in the area, which sometimes caused shoppers to do a double-take.
“They’d come in and see Sallie and say, ‘Didn’t I just see you somewhere else?’ and we’d get a kick out of that,” Mr. Magyer said.
Mr. Magyer, who was 6-foot 4-inches, towered over his wife but he didn't tangle with her. He always knew when she "meant business," he said with a laugh. She was his Peaches, Patches, Honeybun and Little Bit.
"I'd ask friends if they knew why I called her Little Bit, and they'd say becasue I was so tall and she was so small," Mr. Magyer said. "But she'd pipe up and say, ‘Nope, it's becasue I'm a little slice of heaven,' and she was right."
The two married when she was 21 and Mrs. Magyer worked with her husband in the grocery business for a few years before becoming a full-time mother and homemaker.
Mrs. Magyer was well known in the Woodstock community where she and her husband raised two sons.
“That house was always full,” said Mrs. Beasley, who lives in Canton. “Eddie coached a basketball team and she was the team mom. It was a perfect match.”
Once their sons were old enough to attend the local public schools, Mrs. Magyer also worked as substitute teacher.
“She loved the kids she worked with at the school and kids on the basketball team,” Mrs. Beasley said. “And they loved her too. And you knew it because at 25- and 30-years-old they would come to the house to see her. They knew they were always welcome there, and she enjoyed them being there.”
Mrs. Magyer was a natural at taking care of people, her sister said. The older of the twins, Mrs. Magyer not only raised her sons, but she gladly took on a number of surrogate sons. She also was extremely close to her parents and cared for them in their senior years. Her father, Gene Corley, died in 1998 and her mother, Martha Corley, died in 2009. Both deaths were hard on Mrs. Magyer, her sister said.
“She worked the hardest at keeping the family together after mama, passed away,” Mrs. Beasley said. “She felt responsible for us, like daddy did for all of those years.”
But after the death of her mother, the house became very quiet and something changed in Sallie Corley Magyer that led the Woodstock woman into a two-year battle with alcoholism, her husband said. She died Friday from complications of kidney failure. She was 53. Her body was cremated and a memorial service has been scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday at Roswell United Methodist Church. Byars Funeral Home & Cremation Services is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Magyer’s death leaves a major void in the family, her twin sister said.
“For 53 years she was my very best friend,” Mrs. Beasley said. “And I’ve always acknowledged her as the better half of the two of us. This is so very hard.”
Mrs. Magyer is also survived by her two sons, Joseph Magyer of the District of Columbia and Benjamin Magyer of Woodstock and an older sister Pamela Corley Callahan of Knoxville, Tenn.
About the Author
