Peggy Lou Jones (Bolivar)'s Obituary
Peggy Lou (Murray) Jones, age 96, of Pleasant Hope, Mo. passed away July 14, 2021 at 11:24 a.m. in Parkview Health Care Facility, Bolivar, Mo. She was born on December 1, 1924 at the foot of the Goodnight Knob, south of Tin Town, Mo. to W.O. (Ott) and Gola Mae (Sallee) Murray. The 6th of 12 children she was christened Pooh, by her older brothers, and into adulthood was greeted as Peggy Pooh, by them.
Peggy was preceded in death by her husband of 52 years, Kyle Jones, her sons-in-law Jack Watts and David Tucker; her parents, her brothers, Roscoe, Jack, Jim, John, Gene, and Freddie Murray; her sisters, Ruth Mayfield, Maxine Bolin, and Janie Gott.
She attended one room Black Oak School, near her home, to 8th grade. Although she regretted not being able to attend high school, she was a fountain of knowledge her whole life. She could name every tree, plant, bird, fish, or insect in the Ozarks. She kept up with news and world events to the end.
When her older brothers left for military service during WWII, she was next in line, with her sister Maxine, to work with her father on their Pomme de Terre river bottom farm. Picking corn, shocking wheat and oats, milking cows, and any other duty necessary. She always said she had such large hands from carrying heavy buckets of water, from the nearby spring, to the many chickens her mother raised.
On June 6th, 1943 she married Kyle Jones, a young man who had moved with his family to Pleasant Hope in 1939, from Dade County. A recent high school graduate from Greenfield, Mo., he and his two brothers were the new kids in town, and she always said she did not like him at first. At the time of their marriage he was enlisted in the US Navy and stationed at the Olathe, Kansas Naval Air Station. They were able to live off base and she worked as a checker at a Safeway Grocers and later at the PX on base. When he had to leave to go to Hawaii to help salvage the horrible bombing there, she found employment at the Crank’s Drug Store on Commercial St. in Springfield, MO.
Upon her husband’s return they purchased a house in Pleasant Hope and pursued small business endeavors. A small café known as “The Beanery” where the high school students would crowd in for burgers or chili. They spent a small amount of time in Halfway, MO, running a small general store there, making lifelong friends and acquaintances. In late 1950 Kyle (who had stayed in the Naval Reserves) received a telegram from President Harry Truman with orders to report immediately for the Korean Conflict. His squadron, the Bitterbirds, needing additional training, was going to spend some time in San Diego and he wanted Peggy and their young daughter and toddler son, to go along. She shared many stories of this adventure, living in the desert of El Centro in Quonset hut military housing, and seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
In 1953 they decided to try their hand at farming and purchased 120 acres of a large parcel, that her great-great grandfather had originally homesteaded, along the Pomme de Terre River, east of Pleasant Hope. They began attending the First Baptist Church, in Pleasant Hope and the two of them were soon baptized together in the baptistery of the First Baptist Church in Bolivar. Two more baby girls were added to the family. Peggy spent those years raising her family, and a garden, milking cows and delivering baby pigs from their Yorkshire herd. She did find time to pick wild blackberries for her delicious cobblers, and to catch messes of fish to fry up. The Pomme de Terre River was teeming with fish, in those years before the Dam was built. The hard work she had learned as a young girl was instilled in her and her generation. Being raised in the 1930’s, she was always thrifty. Sending her young husband off to military service twice, gave her a strength, that she had her whole life.
After becoming a widow in 1995 she bought a house in Pleasant Hope and remained there, living independently, until February of this year. She had a very green thumb and her gardens and flower beds were always magazine worthy. She continued this work even into her final years of life, having one of the most colorful and beautiful flower gardens in the neighborhood. She also spent her days piecing quilt tops, making baby quilts for all of her family, embroidering feed sack tea towels, crocheting beautiful doilies, and watching her favorite PBS shows and, surprising to all, watching golf on TV.
She is survived by her four children, Nancy Francka (Frank) of Bolivar, Kirk Jones (Connie) of Pleasant Hope, Myrna Watts of Springfield, and Karen Tucker of Pleasant Hope, MO.; her eleven grandchildren, Tim Francka (Beth), Amy Francka (Tammy Ames), Erin Giglio (Tony) all of Bolivar, MO. Kevin Jones (Ariel Cole) of Pleasant Hope, MO. Keith Jones (Chey) of Otsego, MN. Kraig Jones (Amanda Fetter) of Phoenix, AZ. Kandice Higdon, of Rogersville, MO. Kendal Jones of Morrisville, MO. Travis Tucker (Brenda) of Buffalo, MO. Matthew Tucker (Ashley) of Fair Grove, MO. Steven Tucker (Katie) Pleasant Hope, MO.
Her twenty-five great-grandchildren, Samantha and Tabitha Francka, Claire and Matthew Giglio, Kelsey (Mike) Frith, Kaden Jones, Chance Hawk, Paige Cole. Karlie Peck, McKenna, Kenzie Jones, Kayla (Devin) Hampton. Karlie, Kooper Jones, Kinley, Karson and Korbyn Higdon. Kylie, Keeton, and Kolton Jones, Kylie, Trevor, Alivia, Maylee, Will, Greta and Laura Tucker; six great-great grandchildren, Kylie and Keaton Peck, Brinley and Stella Hampton, and Easton and Oaklee Frith.
Also surviving are brother Billy Ray Murray (Sue) of Springfield and sister Betty Sue Trentalange (Ralph) of Whitehall, PA. and other nieces, nephews and numerous other relatives and friends.
Visitation for Peggy will be from 6 to 8 PM, Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at Butler Funeral Home.
Services will be at 11:00 am, Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at Butler Funeral Home, with burial to follow at Pleasant Hope Cemetery, Pleasant Hope, Mo.
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