James Hadley Cash Jr. passed away at his home in Kernersville on February 13th, 2022 surrounded by family.
Hadley was born on June 7, 1953 in Asheville, NC to James Hadley Cash, Sr and Virginia Marriott Cash. He graduated from Dobbins Bennett High School in Kingsport Tennessee and went on to study English and Spanish at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem where he was an active member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity.
After graduating, Hadley and several friends celebrated the Bikecentennial in 1976 and bicycled over 4000 miles across the United States. After settling back in North Carolina, he worked as a color and photoshop specialist in the printing industry. In 1978 his passion for interesting hobbies led him to start collecting slipper orchids (Paphiopedilum) and in 1985 he started his business, named after his mother, Marriott Orchids.
In 1997, he met and married Deborah Ann Ganung, and they celebrated the birth of their only child, Austin, in 1998. After the birth of his son Hadley decided to run Marriott Orchids as a full-time business and during the past 25 years, he has become known as one of the world’s top Paphiopedilum orchid hybridizers, receiving over 400 hundred awards from the American Orchid Society and publishing numerous articles for the AOS, Orchid Digest and Slipper Orchid Journal. In 2015 Hadley received the AOS Award for Excellence in Hybridizing. This award is given for a lifelong commitment to hybridizing excellence. He has lectured throughout the US and internationally sharing his love and expertise of slipper orchids.
Hadley was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014 and during his treatment has volunteered for multiple clinical trials, hoping to allow doctors to learn as much as possible in battling the disease and work toward finding a cure.
He is survived by his wife, Deborah, his son Austin of Kernersville NC, sister Sherri Cash of Atlanta GA as well as friends and orchid enthusiast across the globe.
Services will be held at 2:00 pm on Saturday, February 19, 2022 at Hayworth-Miller Kernersville Chapel in Kernersville, NC. The visitation will be held at 1:00 pm prior to the service at the funeral home.
The family is also inviting friends and relatives to participate in a celebration of life for Hadley’s birthday. It will be held at the Marriott Orchids greenhouse and gardens on June 4th from 11:00am-1:00pm. All are invited to come and share ‘Hadley’ stories.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
