John D. Peake

Published 12:00 am Sunday, June 27, 2010

John Dow “J.D.” Peake, 97, of Bowling Green, died at 8:10 a.m. June 25, 2010, at the Hospice Center.

Born May 31, 1913, J.D. was a member of Holy Spirit Catholic Church for 10 years and earned the title of being the oldest member in the church. He was also a past member of St. Augustine Church in Lebanon for 47 years, and a member of the Knights of Columbus. He was a very active member in Lebanon Senior Citizens and Village Manor in Bowling Green. J.D. was a fun, curious spunky man who always had a twinkle in his eye and a smile for everyone. He loved his family deeply. He worked very hard to provide for them. He was involved with building the first roads by pulling a team of horses in Marion County. He farmed, built his own homes and worked at Heaven Hill Distillery after World War I. As World War II approached, he moved his family to Louisville and became a welder, building airplanes. After the war, he moved his family back to Marion County to farm and built another house. He went to work at a new company named Pepsi Cola. He moved the family to Lebanon. He was a route driver and became manager for them. He became an insurance salesman at the age of 45 and was very successful. In the 1960s, he bought Ashland gas station and incorporated a Greyhound bus station within. In the mid-1960s, he decided to buy a dairy freeze and he and his wife, Mary, ran Peake’s Dairy Freeze for 10 years. He also bought a home, made it into an apartment building and used the land for Peake’s Trailer Park. J.D. also enjoyed and loved to watch “The Price is Right” and “Wheel of Fortune.” Upon retiring, his love of work led him to be the manager of his daughter and son-in-law’s Hallmark card shop and work the soda fountain at their drugstore on Sunday mornings. Once he retired from this, and his beautiful wife died, he moved to Bowling Green in 2000. He touched many people’s lives here and emanated love to all he met. He was a son of the late John Peake and Lola Fogle Peake.

Funeral is at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, with burial at 4 p.m. EDT in St. Augustine Cemetery in Lebanon. Visitation is from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday at J.C. Kirby & Son Funeral Home, Lovers Lane chapel.

Online condolences may be made at jckirbyandson.com.

Survivors include three daughters, Toni Mullins and her husband, Bill, of Louisville, Mary Phyllis Spalding and her husband, Ben, of Dunwoody, Ga., and Robyn Hughes and her husband, Michael, of Bowling Green; two sons, Bruce Peake and his wife, June, of Louisville, and Stephen Peake and his wife, Elena, of Alpharetta, Ga.; longtime friend, Frances Link, of Bowling Green; 11 grandchildren, Dr. Jerry O’Daniel and his wife, Kelley, Katie Monarch and her husband, Ed, and Jessica Covington and her husband, Chris, all of Louisville, Mark Spalding and his wife, Karen, of Gainesville, Ga., Renee Bitting and her husband, Sean, of Cumming, Ga., Matthew Spalding and his wife, Katrina, of Knoxville, Tenn., Danny Peake and his wife, Rachael, of Frankfort, Tina Hawley and her husband, Charlie, of Shelbyville, Vitaliya Peake, of Alpharetta, Ga., Jennifer Shuemaker and her husband, Todd, of Birmingham, Ala., and John Hughes, of Bowling Green; and three step-grandchildren, Monica Martinson, Laura Pinkerton and Elaine Ober.