Martha Tilley Obituary

Martha Hill Jent Disiere Tilley was born March 20, 1921, in a stone house with a sod roof, in Baca County, Colorado. When she was a babe-in-arms her school-teacher father, John Samuel Jent, and his once-pupil wife, Millie Hill, sold the ranch and moved to Oklahoma City with their son and three daughters. A second son was born a few years later.

When she was three her father taught her reading and math. A life-long asthmatic, she had plenty of time to read, and excelled in school. In second grade she was administered the new Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test and was pronounced to be "the most intelligent girl" in Oklahoma City. Martha was also a good visual artist, winning prizes in high school for her carvings, drawings and sillouhettes. After high school, she received a degree from a secretarial school in Oklahoma City.

When Martha was 18 she moved to Clayton, New Mexico, where her mother had once also been a young business woman, and became a legal secretary. In 1940 she moved to Colorado Springs and was hired by Aircraft Mechanics as a bookkeeper. In 1942 she married fighter pilot, Lt. H. Al Disiere, who was killed in 1943 during combat, leaving her a young war widow with a small pension.



Martha was accepted as an art student at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Art School where she met artist Lew Tilley, from Parrott Georgia. They were married in 1946, and had two daughters, Eve and Meg. In 1949 they built the second contemporary house in Colorado Springs, designed by architect Gordon Ingraham, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1952 Lew took the family to live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, to paint. When they returned home Martha begin a career as an artist alongside her husband, creating piñata-like sculptures, three-dimensional white paper lamps, and metal sculptures using automobile shim stock. During these years she also finished the interior of their house, buying the materials as she could afford them.

In 1958 Martha returned to school at the Colorado College, majoring in Sociology. She graduated in 1962 summa cum laude - the first ever in her major at The College. Subsequently, she became assistant curator of the Taylor Museum at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center where she became an expert in Santos and Southwest Indian artifacts and textiles. In 1971 she was listed in the Gazette Telegraph's "Round Town" column as one of "the community women who have responsibility and control." She was also active in the Young Dems, the Democratic Party and the League of Women Voters.

Martha retired to travel with her husband in 1972. They moved to Pueblo, Colorado, where Lew was a professor of art at the University of Southern Colorado. They spent summers in Georgia, and traveled to Europe, staying for extended times in Spain, Italy and England during his sabbaticals. In 1988 they separated amicably and she returned to Colorado Springs.

In the evening of June 12, 2016, she died peacefully in the home she had built and cherished.

Martha was preceded in death by her husband, Lew Tilley. She is survived by her older sister, Anne Yenne of Charlotte, North Carolina, daughters Eve Tilley (Sol Chavez) of Colorado Springs, Margaret Tilley (Bond) Anderson of Parrott, GA, grandchildren Lewis, Christopher (Isabelle), and Michael Keller, India Anderson (Robert Williams) and Erin Anderson.

A memorial service will be held at her home on June 19th, at 5:00 P.M.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Pikes Peak hospice or the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.