Joan Johnson Peyton of Brookhaven, formerly of Charleston, W. Va. and Hilton Head, S.C., passed away on May 18, 2013, at home after a brief illness.

Mrs. Peyton was born in Brookhaven on June 16, 1928. She attended Brookhaven High School and Ole Miss, where she was a Kappa Delta and graduated with a major in home economics.

She married her husband, the late Thomas Pendleton Peyton III, in 1950 in her parents’ yard at Spring Branch Farm, a marriage that lasted nearly 60 years.

Spending most of her married life in Charleston, Mrs. Peyton enjoyed sewing, cooking for her family and her many friends, serving on the altar guild of St. John’s Episcopal Church, delivering Meals on Wheels and designing costumes for the Children’s Theatre. A lifelong member of the Polly Parrots, Mrs. Peyton also belonged to the Matinee Musicale and the Climber’s Club. Mr. and Mrs. Peyton’s entertaining and parties were legendary. When Mr. Peyton retired from the Columbia Gas Transmission Company, he brought Mrs. Peyton back home to Brookhaven, where they built a house on South Jackson Street to be near her sister Phyllis Johnson Spearman and Mrs. Spearman’s husband, the late Ben Spearman. Mrs. Spearman and another sister, Jere Johnson Clark, and brother-in-law, Dr. Richard Clark of Hattiesburg, survive Mrs. Peyton. As well as by her husband, Mrs. Peyton was preceded in death by a son, Jeremiah Becker Johnson Peyton, her parents, Junius and Alice Moreton Johnson, a brother-in-law, Charles C. Peyton, and sister-in-law, Jean Seeley. She is also survived by her daughters, Caroline Peyton and Suzette Peyton (Gus Alden), of Brentwood, Tenn. Alice M. Sherwood (Rob), of St. Louis, Mo, and her son, Thomas Pendleton Peyton IV of Charleston, W. Va. Also surviving her are seven grandchildren, Caitlin and Jamie Harkin, Peyton, Adelyn and Paige Sherwood, Sam and Lucia Cotten, as well as a sister-in-law, Peggy Peyton of Pensacola, Fla. and many devoted nieces and nephews. She will be missed by many more relatives and dear friends.

Visitation and service will be held at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Brookhaven, at 1 and 2 p.m., followed by private interment on Wednesday, May 22. Riverwood Family Funeral Service is in charge of arrangements.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, P.O Box 804, Brookhaven, MS 39602; or to the Mississippi School of the Arts, P.O. Box 229, Brookhaven, MS 39602.

To express your thoughts to the family, you may visit riverwoodfamily.com and click on her name to leave a comment.