Peggy Virginia Griggs Day

Peggy Virginia Griggs Day passed away on Tuesday evening, July 25, 2023. Peggy was born on August 2, 1931, to Bessie Morris Griggs (homemaker and entrepreneur) and Charlie J. Griggs (railroad Agent/Operator) in Monticello, Georgia. Peggy was unique from the moment of her birth. The doctor had a hard time getting her to take her first breath. It took the doctor holding Peggy by the legs and bringing her down sharply on the bed to clear her lungs and prompt her first outcry. The doctor cautioned her mother, Bessie, that Peggy was apt to be a sickly child and might die before adulthood. Bessie was said to have told the doctor that Peggy would “outlive everyone in the room.” And she did…by far. Peggy was 91 years old when she died.

Peggy had two older brothers who both served in the military during World War II; Raymond in the U.S. Navy and Charles in the U.S. Army Air Corps: Raymond, her favorite, had the same birthdate five years earlier. Raymond died in 1989 at age 63. Her elder brother, Charles, was 8 years older. Charles died in 2002 at age 79. Having two older brothers, Peggy learned how to deal with boys early on. So much so that she was quite the Tomboy, who often got in trouble for fighting with one of the neighborhood boys she didn’t like.

After growing up in the austere atmosphere of the Thirties and the deprivations of World War II rationing, Peggy graduated Monticello High School not long after World War II had concluded. She set her sights on becoming a Navy nurse, even though her mother was against it. While she was pursuing this goal at the University of Georgia Nursing School in 1950, her mother, Bessie, fell ill suddenly and passed way unexpectedly, leaving her father, Charlie, alone. As it turned out, Peggy agreed to stay with her father until he recovered from her mother’s death.

As it so often does, life led Peggy to go to work for the same railroad as her father, performing the same job. Peggy loved the independence the job gave her. Especially travelling to various railroad towns throughout Georgia. When Peggy was home in Monticello one weekend, a friend she had met at church, W.G. Day, invited her to his home, in the nearby town of Shady Dale, Georgia, for a Day family Sunday get-together. There she met the youngest boy in the family, Richard Day, fell in love and married him after a long engagement on August 31, 1951

Peggy continued to work for the railroad for the next 10 years. Richard and Peggy had two boys, Richard Russell Day, Jr on October 12, 1952, and Charlie Wayne Day on December 23, 1957. In 1958, the family moved to Macon, Georgia, where they built a new home to accommodate their growing family. While living in Macon, Peggy relented to her 8-year-old’s begging her to take on a Den Mother role in Cub Scouting (to replace his Den Mother who had just resigned). She continued on as a den Mother for 35 years, winning several awards for excellence from the Boy Scouts of America.

In the summer of 1968, Richard took the job as Locomotive Engineer for Southern Railway in Tennille, Georgia. The Day family moved to Tennille, where Wayne enrolled in Tennille Elementary School and Russell enrolled in Washington County High. Not long afterward, Peggy took the job as school secretary at Tennille Elementary where she worked for 20 years until Richard was diagnosed with early-onset dementia of the Alzheimer’s type in 1988. Peggy resigned to take care of Richard, which she did for the next 10 years at home and two more in a nursing home until he died in September of 2001, just days after the 9/11 attacks.

By the time of Richard’s death, both Russell and Wayne were grown and gone, so Peggy began virtually a new life, living alone, but not far from Wayne’s home near Tennille. Peggy seemed always to have the desire to serve the community. First as a nurse, then a Den Mother, Elementary School Secretary and, finally, as organizer and driving force behind the Washington County Support Group for Families of Alzheimer’s victims. Up until a few years before her death, she spent much of her time raising funds to help these families…money that stayed here for use locally.

Peggy lived alone up until just months before her death. She was active in Tennille Baptist Church for many years, where she taught a Sunday School class for elderly women, up to the point where the elderly women all passed or could not make it to church anymore, leaving only Peggy in her advanced age.

Peggy’s life was characterized by service to others: her parents, her brothers, her husband, her children and her grandchildren. Not to mention a host of young Cub Scouts, Tennille Elementary School Children, University of Georgia Redcoat Band Members, Alzheimer’s victims and caregivers, and many more members of her community we may never know.

Survivors include sons, Richard Russell Day, Jr. (Marie) of Kennesaw, and Charlie Wayne Day (Julie) of Tennille, grandson Christopher Wayne Day (Ruby) of South Boston, VA, and granddaughter Courtney Day Wesson (Hunter) of Milledgeville, GA.

The Family is deeply grateful to Twelve Oaks Senior Center in Dublin, GA, Agape Hospice of Dublin, GA, and WellStar Tranquility Hospice residence of Kennesaw, GA that provided exceptional and professional care in Peggy’s last months of life.

Visitation with the family is scheduled for 10am this coming Saturday, July 29 at May and Smith Funeral Home in Sandersville. The funeral service will follow at 11am in the adjoining Chapel. Due to an exceptional heat forecast, a committal ceremony will be held at the end of the funeral in the Chapel in lieu of a graveside service.

In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to: https://www.alz.org/georgia?form=alz_donate or your local WACO Family Support Group, C/O Kathy Barker, 856 Sparta Road, Sandersville, Ga, 31082

May and Smith Funeral Directors are in charge of the arrangements.

Please leave an online condolence at www.mayandsmithfuneraldirectors.com