Peggy Thornton Moore

September 21, 1932 – June 25, 2024

Mrs. Peggy Thornton Moore grew up in Gadsden and Fort McClellan, Alabama during World War II. She met her husband, John, during the Korean War at Jacksonville State University. Mr. Moore served in the Navy after his graduation.

Moore had three sons: John Harvey Moore, Jr., retired from the Georgia Department of Revenue, Richard Anderson Moore, employed by Lockheed-Martin, and Donald Scott Moore, a professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota.

Mrs. Moore was active in politics during the time that her husband served in the Georgia House of Representatives. She formed the first Polk Democratic Association of this county, attracting such prominent speakers as former governor Carl Sanders and Senator Herman Talmadge.

In 1972 Mrs. Moore was elected as the first woman to win the order of the Silver Beaver in the northwest Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of America for her outstanding work in Polk County. In the early days, this award was called the Silver Fawn to distinguish women from men.

After raising her children, Mrs. Moore went back to school at age 48 to earn three degrees in English from Jacksonville State University. During her public service as a teacher, she studied Shakespeare at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon in England.

She belonged to the National Council of Teachers of English and the Georgia Council of Teachers of English. Peggy was a longtime member of the sanctuary choir at First Baptist Church, Cedartown, and was a life member of the Cedartown Junior Service League.

She became the star teacher of Rockmart Comprehensive High School in 1992. She sponsored the first literary magazine, Written on the Rock, at Rockmart High School. This magazine was awarded an excellent and two superiors by the National Council of Teachers of English at the state and national competitions in the three years that it was published.

She always encouraged young writers with her philosophy that students from small rural schools in the South were incredible writers in the best tradition of southern storytellers. Mrs. Moore taught for 20 years at Rockmart before her retirement in August 2003.

Mrs. Moore’s lasting impact was her fifty years teaching the Bible at the First Baptist Church of Cedartown. She regularly taught classes for women of all ages, instructed within the Southern Baptist Convention as an adult teacher of teachers in the Polk-Haralson Association Assist Program, and served as Teaching Improvement Director of her church.

A memorial service will be held for Mrs. Moore on Tuesday, July 2 in the Sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Cedartown at 10am. A reception will follow the service.

Mrs. Moore is survived by her children, John Harvey Moore, Jr. (Cydney) of Cedartown; Richard Anderson Moore (Eleanor) of Baker, Florida; Donald Scott Moore (Brenda) of Carver, Minnesota; two grandsons, Joseph and John; two granddaughters, Christina and Lillian; great-grandson Benjamin Moore; sister-in-law Sue Blanks Thornton and extended family in Huntsville Alabama.

In lieu of floral tributes, the family asked that donations be made to the Memorial Fund of the First Baptist Church of Cedartown.

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