It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our mother, Ok Soon Woodall of Huntsville, Alabama on April 4, 2025. She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother with a massive love for her family.
She was born in Korea on December 17, 1938, to a South Korean Army Intelligence Officer and a beautiful, activist wife during a turbulent time in history. Communist invasion was a threat. Once invasion was impending, her father secretly moved her family safe from harm. They had to leave their beautiful home and most of their belongings behind. Because of the back-and-forth nature of the course of the war between the Allied and Communist forces, the family was displaced many times. They had to find “home” up and down the Korean peninsula. While this was a hardship for the family, it opened a whole new world for our mother. She helped farmers pick ferns and wheat in the countryside. She was there with the abalone divers on the south coast. Our mother was filled with curiosity and the thrill of new discoveries and knowledge. She never lost that.
War ravages a country, especially a small country. Much of the infrastructure was ruined and our mother did not have much access to a formal education in her formative years. She was always conscious of this and taught us children the importance of education. She was insistent that we achieve college degrees and excel in the fields that we chose. She always said, “Everything you achieve, you achieve for me!” And we did – for our mother. Her life experience of war and hardship was our mother’s “school house”.
Ok Soon at 19 years old, met our father, Donald, and fell in love with the handsome blonde-haired, blue-eyed American Army soldier. They married and she immigrated to the United States. She had three daughters.
Unfortunately, Donald passed away in 1975. She met James in 1977, and he became her life partner until he passed in 2012.
Our mother was a fighter, a survivor, and capstone to our families. We will always be indebted to her for everything we have and everything we have achieved.
Ok Soon was preceded in death by Donald Woodall (husband), James Taylor, and Donna Woodall Pendergrass (daughter).
She is survived by her daughters, Sandra Thies (Andrew), and Elizabeth Coffey (Randall); her son-in-law, Jon Scott Pendergrass (Donna Pendergrass, deceased); and her grandchildren, Quintin Thies, Jonathan Pendergrass, Ian Thies, and Alanna Pendergrass.
Visitation will be from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. on Friday, April 11, 2025, at Laughlin Service Funeral Home, with the funeral service immediately following. A graveside service will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 12, 2025, at Huntsville Memory Gardens, Huntsville, Alabama.
