Peggy
Jo Burgiss'
father was killed by a drunk driver while changing a flat tire. She was less
than two years of age when this happened. The same accident seriously injured
her two older brothers. The early death of her father brought considerable hardship
to her and her family. Her mother had been a full time mother/housewife and
insurance paid for little other than medical bills and her father's funeral.
The drunk that hit them more or less went free and had nothing if sued. So,
Peggy Jo, her five siblings and her mother spent the next years living mostly
off her father's Social Security Survivor's Benefits. It was a tough life. While
Peggy Jo was in high school her mother married a much older man named Ellis.
Together, he and her mother ran a general store (they were not the owners).
This man's presence in the home made things a little better financially but
he made no attempt to get along with any of the children especially Peggy Jo
who was still at home. Peggy Jo was a talented art student in high school and
through summer jobs and student loans managed to attend two years of college
at Carson-Newman College as an art student. This is where she met William C.
Lathan, Jr., who was a music student. They married and relocated in Prince William
and then Stafford counties of Virginia. Their marriage produced three children:
William Clark Lathan III, Mary Elizabeth Lathan and Bradley David Lathan. Their
marriage ended in separation in July of 1986 and then divorce on July 12, 1989.
During their marriage she held a number of jobs including sales clerk at a dept.
store, insurance sales, grocery checker, and purchasing clerk for the federal
government at Quantico Marine Base. During and following her separation and
divorce she and the children lived in Frederick Place Apts., Fredericksburg,
VA then Greenwich Village Townhouses, Fredericksburg, VA and finally Foxwood
Village Trailer Park, Garrisonville, VA. A brief marriage to Jack Perry produced
a daughter, Caroline Canzada Lathan (Peggy Jo was using the surname Lathan at
the time of her birth). In 1996, she returned to college studying accounting
at Strayer University and earned accounting degree. In 2000, she bought a townhouse
in Williamstown Townhouse Development in Dumfries, VA which she has remodeled
with the help of her then boyfriend, now husband, who is a retired master carpenter.
Peggy Jo works for a U.S. Govt. Agency as an accountant.
Source:
Personal knowledge of William C. Lathan, Jr, web site writer, interviews with
her siblings and her mother.