PERSINGER
Mary Jane Persinger, 90, of Ronceverte, WV passed away, Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at The Brier.
Born April 3, 1930 in Ronceverte to George Holley Ridgeway and Mary Jane Hutchison. She was one of eight children.
Mary Jane had to drop out of junior high school to care for her father who had been wounded in World War I. Later, her brother, Carl Ridgeway, was killed on Normandy Beach; and Mary Jane carried that grief for the rest of her life.
At the age of 18, she married John Harvey Persinger. They had two daughters, Edith Jane and Nancy Lee.
Mary Jane may have been the hardest working person to have ever lived. Before getting married, she worked at a Ronceverte laundry and made RIPCO bars. For most of the 1950s and ‘60s, she worked at Spud’s Drive Inn at night as a short order cook and waitress. She’d come home early in the morning, sleep for a few hours and then be back at work at 8 a.m. to make barbecue for Spud’s. Even so, she made sure to have dinner on the stove for her family between her day and night jobs. Mary Jane had Wednesday evenings off, and she would often take the girls to the latest Elvis movie as a special treat.
Mary Jane and John Persinger divorced in the late 1960s, but the pair remained friends and ate dinner together every Saturday night until John Persinger died in 2004. She gave birth to Greg Noel Persinger in 1970, and he was one of the great delights of her life.
Mary Jane cooked and waited tables at the Lewisburg Elks Country Club for many years. Despite poor health, Mary Jane cleaned houses and cared for the elderly until she was 75.
As much as she worked, Mary Jane always had a soft heart for young people with troubled lives and “adopted” a number as her own.
Mary Jane was preceded in death by her parents; and siblings, Ethel Deem, Carl, Earl, Herman, Charles, and Bob; as well as one beloved grandchild, Charles Edward Jones.
She is survived by her sister, Nancy Morgan; her children, Greg and Jennifer Persinger of Organ Cave, Edith and Charles Jones of Roanoke, and Nancy and Houston Napier of Lynchburg; her grandchildren, Stephanie, Onyza, Sofia, Alaina, and Evelyn Persinger; Beth JoJack of Roanoke; Kristie Burdeaux of Lynchburg; and Julie Scott of Lynchburg. She also lived long enough to love many great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
Mary Jane suffered for many years with dementia, but still found joy in overfeeding her chihuahua, Zoie. We are happy she’s now at peace.
Funeral service will be 2 p.m., Sunday, November 1, 2020 at the Morgan Funeral Home Chapel, 252 Montvue Drive, Lewisburg, WV with Pastor Don Trent officiating. Burial will follow in the Roach Cemetery, Muddy Creek Mtn. Rd., Lewisburg, WV. Visitation will be one hour prior to the funeral service, Sunday at the funeral home.
We will be following COVID-19 regulations and request that guests wear a mask and be mindful of social distancing.
Online guestbook can be signed at www.morganfh.net.
Arrangements by Morgan Funeral Home, Lewisburg, WV.
