Joan Hampton Peery

was the daughter and granddaughter of Methodist ministers, The Rev. Joseph Hampton and The Rev. Seaborn Hopper.

Joan Hampton Peery graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. Degree in Education, on a Methodist Missionary scholarship.

Before public school kindergartens existed, Joan helped establish private

kindergartens at Methodist Churches in Tennessee and Georgia. She surveyed the new “government city” of Oak Ridge, Tennessee for the Methodist Church where three Methodist Churches and a Methodist Hospital were ultimately built. She was a popular Methodist Church Camp Counselor and Director of both Senior and Children’s choirs.

In 1951, Joan married William Whitley Peery, Sr., a physicist with the Atomic

Energy Commission. They moved from Tennessee to Atlanta, GA and raised two sons there after Mr. Peery was selected to help open the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s new regional office there in the early 1960’s. Joan was a teacher and educator, first in Tennessee and then in Georgia for many years until retirement at age 70.

Joan and Bill retired to Anna Maria Island in Florida. Bill passed away in March,

2005. They are survived by their two sons, William Whitley Peery, II (Deborah Curtis) and Joseph Hampton Peery (Janet Brockus); three grandchildren, Jennifer Peery Logue, Clinton Curtis Peery and Tammy Perryman; and six great grandchildren, Vincent Peery, Gabriella Guerra, Alex and Karissa Ibarra, and Layla and Myah Guzman.

Joan will be buried in a private graveside service next to Bill in the Peery Plot of

Maplewood Cemetery in Tazewell, VA.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Anna Maria Island Garden Club , Inc.

P.O. Box 4131, Anna Maria, FL 34216 or Roser Memorial Church, P.O. Box 247, Anna Maria, FL 34216.