Julia Brooke Penn Moore

Julia Brooke (Penn) Moore, 95, went to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Wednesday, October 29, 2014, at the McGraw Center for Caring, Jacksonville, FL. She was born March 5, 1919, in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, to her parents, George Gibson Penn, Sr., a railway mail clerk, and Gertrude Anna (Cartwright) Penn, a teacher. She moved with her family to Jacksonville, Florida in 1925.

Julia graduated from Andrew Jackson High School in 1936 at age 17, where she marched with the Pepperettes Girls Drill and Pep Team. She attended secretarial school for two years. At age 19, she became the executive secretary for the president of Mason Lumber Company where she met the love of her life, a lumber salesman from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Kenneth Francis Moore. They were married on Flag Day, June 14, 1941, in St. Augustine at Grace United Methodist Church. After Kenneth enlisted with the U.S. Navy in 1941, he was assigned to work in the intelligence division in Miami, FL. Julia and Ken spent the remainder of the World War II period in Miami, FL.

After World War II, they returned first to Green Cove Springs in 1945, and then to Jacksonville, FL. In 1947, they began attending Glendale Community Church, where Ken’s Uncle Russell and Aunt “Betty” Moore attended. Julia put her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal Savior in 1948, and was baptized in the St. John’s River behind the Baptist Children’s Home by Rev. Ellie W. Nesmith. For many years she attended weekday Bible Studies, taught Sunday school and Beginners Church. She supported and participated in the Women’s Missionary Society, Ladies’ Prayer Group, VBS, Know Your Bible Club, and Pioneer Girls at Glendale Community Church. She supported Ken in his ministry with Boy’s Brigade when their son, Paul, was a member.

After taking extensive training from Child Evangelism Fellowship, she taught Good News Clubs for about twenty years and served as the prayer chairman on the CEF board for N.E. Florida. She used her story-telling skills to share the Gospel and Bible lessons with children in a children’s hospital, at YMCA’s, children’s homes and children’s crisis centers. She recruited others to enroll in the CEF training program, volunteer their homes for clubs, assist her with music, and teach Gospel object lessons.

She was a member of PTA at the schools her children attended, Hogan Spring Glen Elementary School, Southside Junior High School and Englewood High School. She served as a den mother for Cub Scouts at Spring Park United Methodist Church when her son, Kenneth, was a Cub Scout. Before Girl Scouts came to her community, she organized a craft club for girls.

Julia used her excellent secretarial skills to correspond with missionaries all over the world, including a birthday card ministry to missionaries and their children. She often relayed their prayer requests to her missionary and children’s groups.

When her three children and three of her grandsons attended Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, she became a prayer warrior and supporter of Wheaton College. She encouraged young people to consider a Christian education, Christian service, and possibly ministry in the USA or in other countries as a missionary.

Julia and her husband, Ken, were faithful supporters and prayer warriors for missionaries and their children, Christian workers, pastors, family, friends, and their students. They worked as a team in their many service endeavors. Their son, Paul, helped them with some of their projects and ministries with children. She supplied her daughter, Patricia, with visual aids to teach Sunday school with Inner-city Christian Action in Chicago while attending Wheaton College.

Julia enjoyed crafts, especially if the craft was part of a ministry effort with children, often choosing woodworking crafts which her husband, Kenneth, enjoyed, too. As young mothers, she and her sister, Anna Jean, enjoyed sewing dresses and doll clothes for their daughters, but also expanded their sewing to making items to send to missionaries to use in their ministry. She did not have much time to embroidery, but taught her daughter and other children that skill. Since her own mother who resided in her upstairs apartment was an enthusiastic crafter, she and her husband made time to take her mother’s creations to a kiln to be fired, and helped her with her many crafts and club projects. She and her sister, Anna Jean, enjoyed planning wedding and baby showers for friends, missionary emphasis events, and special family events together. Their favorite holidays were Christmas and Easter.

Tennis was Julia’s favorite high school sport, which she enjoyed with her friends and youngest sister, Helen, and later with her husband and children. She inspired her sons to consider tennis as a favorite sport. Both sons, Kenneth and Paul, played on the Englewood High School and the Wheaton College tennis teams. Also as a young mother, she enjoyed bowling with her family, inspiring her daughter and later her grandsons to enjoy bowling on teams. Her example inspired her daughter, Patricia, to consider joining girls’ drill teams in high school and college, since she had been on a girls’ drill team in high school.

She also loved music, especially hymns, and encouraged her children and grandchildren to consider learning to play an instrument. She usually asked visitors to sing or even whistle tunes for her when they came to the nursing home.

She is survived by her three children, Patricia Anne (Moore) Taylor, and her husband, Dr. Franklin D. Taylor, Sr., Dr. Kenneth Lawrence Moore, MD, and his wife, Marinelle (Samps) Moore, and Paul Andrew Moore, and his wife, Gayle D. (Peterson) Moore, sister-in-law, Julia Mary (Moore) Pegg, seven grandchildren, Franklin D. Taylor, Jr., and his wife, Phyllis Elizabeth (Bombard) Taylor, Kenneth Paul Taylor, Jeremiah Hudson Taylor, Jessica Brooke (Moore) Sink and her husband, Zachary Samuel Sink, Megan Dawn (Moore) Kraskousas, and her husband, Justin Paul Kraskouskas, Ryan Paul Moore, and his wife, Martha “Marty” (Thompson) Moore, and Kendra Gayle Moore, nine great grandchildren, Gregg William Bowman, Gaige Phillip Bowman, Grace Elizabeth Rose Taylor, William Ryan Moore, Julia Jane Moore, Elizabeth Kate Moore, Caroline Wrenn Moore, Isla Elizabeth Sink, and Levi August Sink, many nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews.

Her loving husband of 64 1/2 years, Kenneth Francis Moore, her infant son, Frank Moore, her parents, George Gibson Penn, Sr., and Gertrude Anna (Cartwright) Penn, two brothers, George Gibson Penn, Jr. and Robert Jackson Penn, four sisters, Anna Jean (Penn) Kindred, Jacinta Lewis (Penn) Allemand, Jeraldine Roberta (Penn) McCann, and Helen Mandeville (Penn) Byrd, father-in-law, Lawrence Elwood Moore, mother-in-law, Harriet Jane (Smith) Moore, three sisters-in-law, Marie Adelaide “ Becky” (Weissbeck) Penn, Janice (Moore) Bledsoe, and Louise (Sims) Moore, seven brothers-in-law, William Earl Kindred, Retired Captain Arnold E. Allemand, Jr., Retired Major John Paul McCann, Jr., Dr. Richard E. Byrd, Sr., Philbert Elwood Moore, Charles Harold “Pat” Pegg, Jr., and Grover G. Bledsoe, Jr., many cousins, aunts, uncles, two nephews, three great nephews, and three great nieces predeceased her.

Paternal grandparents: Lewis George Penn and Mary “Mollie” Gray (Brooke) Penn

Maternal grandparents: Jeremiah Alonzo Cartwright and Julia Estella (Hook) Cartwright

In lieu of flowers, please consider contributions in memory of Julia Brooke (Penn) Moore to any of the following Christian ministries:

•Child Evangelism Fellowship, P.O. Box 348, Warrenton, MO 63383-0348,

Phone: 800-300-4033.

•Glendale Community Church, 6411 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32216, designated for ministries to children or missions. Phone: (904) 724-6977

•Samaritan’s Purse, P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC, 38607. Medical, humanitarian and emergency relief

•Gideon’s, International, P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, TN 37214-0800, www.gideons.org, check for memorial cards and e-cards on their website.

**Julia’s family wishes to express their appreciation to Julia’s friends and relatives from Glendale Community Church who visited her faithfully and often sang and prayed with her while at Woodland Grove Health and Rehabilitation Center, formerly Southpoint Terrace, where she was a resident for 9 ½ years. Also, thanks to those who provided transportation to church for Julia and Ken when Ken’s vision prevented him from driving.

**Julia’s family wishes to express their appreciation for the care and personal attention she received at the Anne and Douglas McGraw Center for Caring (October 12-29, 2014), St. Vincent’s Medical Center, South (October 5-12, 2014), Mayo Clinic (2003-2013) and Mayo Hospital (September 22-26, 2014), Memorial Hospital Jacksonville (February 2005), Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital (February-March, 2005), and Woodland Grove Health and Rehab, formerly Southpoint Terrace, where she spent over nine and a half years (March 8, 2005-October 5, 2014) as a resident patient. Thanks to all the staff and associated medical personnel, past and present, who faithfully worked in many capacities to help Julia and her family. Special thanks to the Community Hospice of N.E. Florida medical team who made it possible for Julia to go to the McGraw Center for Caring, and to those who provided care while she was a resident patient. Thanks to all the medical personnel and social workers who communicated with her family to keep us informed of her health situation.