Alley, Felix Eugene

5 July 1873–7 Jan. 1957

Felix Eugene Alley, attorney, superior court judge, and author, was born in Whiteside Cove, Jackson County, youngest son of John E. Alley and Sarah Whiteside Norton Alley. Both were pioneer settlers of the area. Young Alley was graduated from Cullowhee High School in 1896 and studied law at The University of North Carolina, 1897–98. In 1898 he was elected clerk of superior court in his native county; he continued to study law privately. Admitted to the bar in 1903, he established a practice in Webster and represented Jackson County in the General Assembly of 1905. He was solicitor of the Twentieth Judicial District, 1910–14; afterward, he removed to Waynesville as an attorney and remained there the rest of his life. At various times he served as county attorney for Haywood, Jackson, and Swain counties and for the town of Waynesville. In 1933 he was appointed judge of the superior court, a post he held until his retirement in 1948. He was awarded the honorary LL.D. degree by Western Carolina College in 1952.

As a young man, Alley was a noted banjo player; he wrote the ballad "Kidder Cole" at the age of sixteen. He was the author of two books, Random Thoughts and Musings of a Mountaineer (1941) and What Think Ye of Christ ? (1946).

In 1899, Alley married Mary Elvira Hayes. They were the parents of two sons and a daughter: Felix E., Jr., John Hayes, and Edna Louise (Mrs. J. Willford Ray).