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Jum Soon (Peggy) Cranford, age 86 of New Martinsville, WV, passed away from this world on May 6, 2023, at Wheeling Medical Park Hospital. “Peggy” was the eldest of three daughters, born in Andong, S. Korea in 1937 to Yoon Ro Pak and Pil Sook Shu. She met her first husband, Alfred Wayne King, while he was in S. Korea with the US Army, after the end of the Korean War. The two married in S. Korea, and later moved to the US, settling in West Virginia at the end of Wayne’s army service. After Wayne’s passing in 1985, Peggy moved to the Atlanta, GA area, eventually settling in nearby Austell after marrying her second husband, Rufus Cranford. A few years after Rufus passed in 2007, she returned to New Martinsville. Surviving Peggy are her four children including Annie King, John (Diana) King, Debra King, and Rosetta (Mike) Cozart; three grandchildren including Darin King, Meghan Collins, and Ethan King; three step-grandchildren including Courtney, Ryan, and Kailey Pettit: four great grandchildren and two step-great grandchildren. Jum Soon was a loving and devoted mother to her four children and all her family. She overcame enormous obstacles in her lifetime, starting as a child with survival of the Japanese Invasion of Korea and subsequent Japanese occupation of her hometown – followed soon after by the Korean War. Leaving behind war-torn Korea and emigrating to the US with her husband, she soon found herself surrounded by four small children while grappling with the necessities of fitting into the US culture: learning a new language, new customs, and new people. She tackled and overcame these and all huge challenges with her accustomed grit and determination, not because they were easy but because she simply insisted on doing the best she could for her family. She was a member of the Steelton Church of Christ. The guiding principles in her life were her unshakeable Christian faith and a deep pride in being a naturalized US Citizen; she lived her life in a way that never strayed from the best expectations of those two commitments. The family will receive friends on Wednesday from 10:00 until time of service at 11:00 am Grisell Funeral Home & Crematory, 751 Third Street, New Martinsville, WV, with Evangelist Dwight Williams officiating. Interment will be in Carrollton, GA next to her second husband, Rufus. In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made to the 501c3 group, Wetzel County Animal Welfare League, Inc. PO Box 137, Proctor, WV 26055.

Tributes

Jum Soon "Peggy" Cranford

March 3, 1937 - May 6, 2023