Peggy Joy Driggars Thompson, 87, of Owens Cross Roads, passed away Friday from complications of MDS (pre-leukemia). She is survived by her sister, Annie Jessie Driggars Patterson, of Perry, Georgia, and her children, Carole Thompson Gilchrist, of Spring Hope, North Carolina, and Lewis Andrew Thompson, III, of Owens Cross Roads, Alabama; and seven nephews, two nieces, and three granddaughters. She was preceded in death by her husband, Lewis Andrew Thompson, Jr., and daughter, Mary Leigh Thompson.
Mrs. Thompson was born in Macon, Georgia, to Jackson DeLoach Driggars and Recie Louise Flewellyn Driggars and shared her childhood with her sister and their cousins who were taken into the home from time to time. After high school, Peggy worked at Warner Robbins Air Force Base where she met her husband who was fresh from the University of Arkansas as a Second Lieutenant in the USAF.
Peggy and Lewis started their family in Memphis, and lived in Macon, then Orlando before settling in Decatur, Alabama for 35 years. Peggy was the axle of the family wheel as Lewis was typically out of town on TDY with the FDIC. Mrs. Thompson exemplified the Great American Housewife as she raised three kids, taught Sunday School, kept babies in the nursery, and sang alto in the church choir. She loved her Lord Jesus and usually found herself in the middle of family and friends as she served them selflessly.
After her husband’s death in 1997, Peggy moved to Perry, Georgia, in proximity of her sister’s family, and eventually moved back to North Alabama to help raise her third granddaughter who was born in 2003. Peggy was a member of the Grace Sunday School Class at Willowbrook Baptist Church.
A memorial service will be held in Perry, Georgia on October 24, 2020. Then, Peggy will be interred beside Lewis at the National Cemetery in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “A woman of valor, who can find her? For her value is far beyond rubies.” Proverbs 31:10
