Gertie Lexine Petrak

Gertie Lexine “Lexine” Petrak (Buck), age 82, passed away on March 18, 2020, at the loving and caring Sunrise Assisted Living facility in Leesburg, Virginia. She was born on March 17, 1938, to Minnie Gertrude Buck (Paramore) and Marshall Rusalum Buck in Blackjack, North Carolina. Although Lexine loved her family, she wasn’t sure farming was her cup of tea. On the day following high school graduation, at the age of 19, she took a Greyhound bus to Washington, DC, to accept a secretarial job with the FBI. She remained at the FBI until shortly after she married Joseph “Joey” Petrak on October 11, 1958, in Washington, DC. They raised 3 children Donna Marie-Petrak Read (Petrak), Katherine “Kathy” Lexine Souther (Petrak), and Andrew “Andy” Steven Petrak in Fairfax, Virginia. Lexine was very gifted in her creativity and utilized those gifts to make a loving home for her family with interior decorating, sewing, cooking, baking, and gardening. She loved to read. Once her youngest started school, she worked for 17 years, as a lead cook at Jermantown Elementary School and Oakton Elementary School, then for 23 years was the Shift Manager and head cook at Friendly’s Ice Cream Restaurant in Oakton, Virginia. Lexine was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, and her siblings, John Marshall Buck, Katie Lee Clark (Buck), Ervin James Buck, and Martha Rachel Hudson (Buck). She will be missed dearly by family and friends, especially by her children Donna and husband, Bill, Kathy and her husband, Craig, and Andy and his wife, Maria, and grandchildren, Jennifer “Jenn” Lynn Montano (Souther) and husband, Matt, Craig Alan Souther, II “CJ”, Samantha “Sam” Leigh Souther, and Joseph “JoJo” Alfredo Petrak. At a later time, the family will have a Celebration of Life Mass. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations go to Capital Caring.