Jonas, Peggy Whittaker

Peggy Whittaker Jonas flew into the arms of her Lord in the early morning hours of Monday, October 16, 2006. She leaves her much loved sweetheart and husband of sixty-two years, Gordon Jonas to cherish her memory. She also leaves behind her precious children, Nancy Mabry and her husband Bill of Pauline, SC, Danny Jonas and his wife Debbie of Max Meadows, VA, and Sally Gotkiewicz and her husband Tim of Orange Park, FL.

She had six grandchildren that she loved heart and soul, Karen Mabry of Davis, CA, Cathy Freeman and her husband Josh of Union, SC, Shannon Jonas of Kalamazoo, MI and his fianc India Fulbright, Justin Jonas of Max Meadows, VA, Lisa ONeal and her husband Thomas of Decatur, GA, and Ryan Gotkiewicz and his wife Julie of Montgomery, AL. She was very proud of her two great grandchildren, Abigail and Aryn Freeman. Also in South Carolina her sister Ruby McPeak and her husband Tom, and her brother Richard and his wife Martha survive her. Peggy had numerous nieces and nephews that she loved, especially the children of Maurice and Florence.

Peggy was born in Pulaski, VA on December 24, 1925 and was raised by her grandparents, Joe and Ida Whittaker. She became a war bride on November 4, 1944 when she married Gordon. They then began a love affair that lasted over the years and inspired others to stand the test of times and build strong marriages.

Peggy obeyed the gospel in 1947 and was a faithful member of the Radford Church of Christ for over forty-five years. She served as a Sunday school teacher and as the wife of an Elder. She had a smile, a handshake, and a hug for every person present. The members there were her closest and dearest friends, she loved them very much.

Peggy lived her life serving others and making sure no one within her reach was hungry. She worked as a cafeteria manager in the Radford City School System for twenty-nine years in each of the elementary schools after beginning in the Radford High School cafeteria in 1966. She loved to see people eat and enjoy her cooking and she always had plenty to share. There was never any doubt in the minds of her family and friends that Peggy loved them. The tears that we shed now are the first she doesn’t share with us. We will miss her greatly until we meet again.

Funeral services will be held Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 11:00 a.m. at the Radford Church of Christ with Mr. Larry Phillips officiating. Entombment will follow in the Highland Memory Gardens Mausoleum in Dublin. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Radford Church of Christ, 700 8th Street, Radford, VA 24141. The family will receive friends from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Wednesday at the Mullins Funeral Home in Radford.

A tribute to Peggy was posted in the Roanoke Times:

During all of her 80 years, Peggy Whittaker Jonas never met a hungry stomach. Her hands were the hands that spooned soup into empty bowls and sliced vegetables for salads. A diligent hostess, she worked day in and day out to provide good food and a warm dining atmosphere for her guests. For Jonas, that meant a daily line of 300 to 400 children.

The Pulaski-born cafeteria manager dedicated 29 years to serving Radford’s schools. She started in 1966 and was a regular cafeteria worker at Radford High School for four years and a manager for nine years. She then transferred to Kuhn Barnett Elementary where she was manager for eight years until the school closed. Her last tenure was at Belle Heth Elementary, where she was manager for eight years. Jonas died in mid-October.

“Miss Peggy is the reason I have my job today,” said Lenora Williams, director of school nutrition for Radford City Schools. “Because of the wealth of knowledge she had and the way she trained me, there was nothing in the kitchen that I didn’t know how to do when she retired. I was able to step into her shoes as cafeteria manager at Belle Heth and go on to acquire my job as school nutrition director.”

Williams began working under Jonas at Belle Heth Elementary in 1987.

Together, they prepared lunch and breakfast. Jonas also taught Williams to do inventory and the importance of keeping accurate records.

“Mostly, she worked with us to understand how important the students were to our jobs,” Williams said. “If we didn’t have the kids happy, they weren’t going to eat, and if they don’t eat, we don’t have a job.”

Williams said Jonas was a loving leader, never scolding her employees for mistakes but simply teaching them how to do things right. She believed in encouraging her employees to correct their mistakes so they would learn from them.

She was also an open-minded leader when it came to school nutrition. A change in rules or regulations, which happens often in the food services industry, according to Williams, didn’t trip her up. She was willing to try new things.

Even after her retirement, Jonas was available on-call to assist with special occasions, or if employees needed immediate help.

“She was a very Christian lady … a true Southern lady,” Williams said. “She was very people-oriented. Her husband and her family were everything to her, second only to her faith and belief in God.”

Peggy Jonas met her husband, Gordon Jonas, in 1943 when he was on leave from the U.S. Navy and visiting the dime store in Pulaski where the 17-year-old Peggy Jonas worked.

“He walked into the dime store, and there was this pretty 17-year-old girl at the counter, and I can just imagine him coming over in his Navy uniform and flirting with her. That very day they met, he proposed,” said their son, Danny Jonas.

“She wasn’t well-off, and she told him to come back on Saturday to let her think. She walked home that night and packed up what little possessions she had and left with him on Saturday. They were married in Cripple Creek on the next Sunday.”

Cripple Creek is an area in Wythe County where Gordon Jonas grew up.

Peggy Jonas quickly fulfilled her role as a “war bride.” She took a weeklong train ride to California to see her husband back off to the war, sitting on his lap and eating peanut butter sandwiches the whole way.

Gordon Jonas’ patrols typically lasted three to six months at a time, and Peggy Jonas lived with his parents in Cripple Creek while he was away. When he returned, the couple lived in Cripple Creek, Nashville, Tenn., and Covington before moving to Radford in 1960.

While he never completed high school, Gordon Jonas went to college in Nashville and studied to be a minister. He also received a master’s degree in distributive education from Virginia Tech later in life.

When the couple moved to Covington in 1955, he held three jobs — as a minister at Covington Church of Christ, as a teacher at Covington High School and as a television repairman in his spare time. Their three children were born in 1947, 1951 and 1957. Peggy Jonas’ time was mainly spent at home.

“We were a ‘Leave it to Beaver’ family,” Danny Jonas said. “Mom was home. She did the cleaning, cooking and raising the kids.”

Danny Jonas now lives in Max Meadows, working as a teacher and the athletic director for Fort Chiswell High School. Nancy Mabry, the Jonas’ oldest daughter, lives in South Carolina, and youngest daughter, Sally Gotkiewicz, lives in Florida. Gordon Jonas lives in Radford.

Danny Jonas said his mother’s interest in food services probably stemmed from a long line of female cooks in the family. She was trained on a wood stove, and her breads were famous locally.

“She was too nice, too sweet,” Jonas said. “She loved people and loved cooking. I don’t think there was a kid that went through Radford High School or Belle Heth that was hungry.”