Dorothy Holland Peacock

Dorothy was born on Washington’s Birthday in 1926. The first child to Clarence Holland Johnson and Laura Belle Johnson, she was the apple of her daddy’s eye and shared the same middle name with her father. All her life she was Daddy’s girl and could do no wrong in his eyes. Dorothy’s mother was so young when she had her “little girl” that they became as close as mother and daughter could be and were best of friends. No mother and daughter could have been closer. That love and friendship continued all their lives.

Love was ever-present in her life. At the tender age of 13 she met a boy at the Krystal Diner in Macon Georgia and just before she turned 17 years old she married that young man, James Leroy Peacock. That virginal love turned into a lifetime romance that spanned nearly 74 years of marriage. The history of their life together is the stuff of novels. They were both beautiful, spirited, strong willed, individuals that learned to live and love together without ever giving up their own individuality.

Dorothy and Leroy lived a storybook life together. They traveled all across America and lived in dozens of states. They started with nothing and built a successful happy family. As a young married couple during World War II, they had so little money that a date to the nickel movie was a big deal and they would have to share a single-scoop ice cream cone because they couldn’t afford any more. But they were like many young couples in the early 1940’s and they didn’t feel deprived. They were having too much fun and were too happy to worry about being poor. Besides, these were intelligent, motivated, ambitious, beautiful young people. The future was theirs to take, all they had to do was be happy and work hard. Dorothy and Leroy did both. It was always a pleasure to see them together talking about old times. To the uninformed it looked like they were fighting or mad at each other. That combative style of interacting would only last through 73+ years of marriage. They would finish each other’s stories and debate about the details. Regardless which one had the more accurate memory, either version was still a great adventure. Maybe the era was simply more romantic and interesting than today, but their life together was just like an old romantic movie with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, or Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. They experienced the extremes of love, happiness, success, failure, tragedy and grace. A life together that spans seven and a half decades cannot be described in just a few anecdotes, but suffice to say their stories were great.

During the war, Leroy enlisted and became an officer and pilot in the Army Air Corp. He went on to become a flight instructor to the famous Tuskegee Airmen. Meanwhile, Dorothy and her mom worked in a defense plant making gas masks, hoods and capes. In spite of the difficulty of the times, it was a happy time in their lives. The experiences they shared cemented a bond that would last a lifetime.

Eventually this loving couple started a family. Maybe it was inherited or just a pattern that got followed, but Dorothy had the same kind of melded love and friendship with her daughter, Georgia Garnette Peacock, as she had with her own mother. Dorothy had three children: Georgia, James Leroy Peacock, Jr., and the baby Jimmy Lee Peacock. She loved all of her children equally and with all of her heart. Life was the best for many years. Tragedy, however struck the family when Leroy, Jr. was killed in an accident at 14 years of age. Dorothy loved too deeply and never fully recovered from the loss of her eldest son. In spite of the devastation to her soul that the loss of Jr. caused, she survived to continue sharing her limitless love with her two remaining children. She also outlived her beloved daughter, but never spent a day that Georgia and Jr. were not in her thoughts.

Dorothy outlived her parents, brother, husband and two of her three children. With each loss she shared more of her love and attention with the survivors. Her relationship to her baby, Jim, became so close that neither could imagine the world without the other. Jim and Dorothy were the best of friends and companions. In a good way, Jim was a true momma’s boy. He was devoted to her and she was to him. They enjoyed each other’s company and even into her dotage they still loved to spend time together. She was youthful no matter her age. They traveled to casinos to gamble, went fishing, shopped, went to dinner, watched movies, played games, attended live theater, and even went to a Paul McCartney concert together. Dorothy was a child at heart all the way to the end. That youthful exuberance was part of what Jim loved most about his mother. Her sense of humor was infectious and she was truly funny.

Dorothy became the matriarch to numerous generations. She had children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren. All of the generations looked to her as the glue that held the family together and everyone knew she would eventually forgive anything and she was eternally generous. Although her temper was volatile, her willingness to forgive was unlimited. It was never a dull moment when dealing with Dorothy’s mercurial nature and her flame red hair was a true representation of her nature. But her anger was always overwhelmed by her inherent kindness. The words that best describe her are love, kind, funny, loyal, volatile and generous. Those of us that knew and loved her cannot imagine a world without her. Life will forever be darker without the presence of her light.

After a long struggle against insurmountable medical odds, Dorothy passed away on her mother’s birthday, on January 10, 2017. She fought to survive all the way to the end. No matter how bad her health became, she never gave up and never stopped wanting to live. She believed in her heart she would go home and still get to go to dinner or to the theater or to get her hair done. She never surrendered to the thought she couldn’t get better. Her strength and desire to live surprised everyone that didn’t know her, it was no surprise to those who knew and loved her. Dorothy fought against all odds when others would have quit and she kept her spirit to the very last. She passed away with her son and grandson holding her hands and telling her the thing she enjoyed the most: “Mom. I love you.”