|
Percy E. 'Ed' Pettijohn Miami, FL QCWA # 7499 |
 |
Ed Pettijohn was the middle son Robert Milton Pettijohn and the eldest son of Oberia Beatrice Newton. He had an older half-brother, Ward Beals Pettijohn, from his father's first marriage. And he had a younger brother, Robert Owen Pettijohn, who died at the age of two from a horse and buggy accident.
Ed lived his early years in Indianapolis, IN. His family moved to South Florida about 1920 where his father tried his hand at farming growing strawberries, okra and gladiolus. It was not a great success, and they moved to the City of Hialeah.
He became very interested in wireless radio as a young man which would become a major part of his later career and life. He spoke often how he knew the terrible hurricane that hit Miami of 1926 was coming hours before it hit due to wireless communication from the islands, and there was nothing anyone could do.
He attended Miami High School when it was the only High School in Miami.
He worked as an electrician in a radio shop in his early 20s before he married.
He met his wife through one of his very dear friends, Bill Jay, who would become his future brother-in-law. He married Marion Lois Jay August 14, 1932. They made their home in Miami, FL. Together they had four children, Richard Edward Pettijohn, Beverly Elizabeth Pettijohn Argo, Gail Beatrice Pettijohn Hickman, and Jay Robert Pettijohn who died young.
During WWII Ed went to Peru to install radios in planes for Pan Am World Airways at an outpost.
In 1945 Ed was working as a Foreman on Dinner Key at the Pan American hanger and airport. Ed worked for Pan American United Airways until his retirement in the late 1970s.
He spent the summers in Hendersonville, NC at a family home shared with his wife's sister and husband.
He became quite an accomplished artist in retirement and painted beautiful Florida landscapes in oil.
He enjoyed a good meal, a good joke, loved to tinker in his garage, fishing, playing poker, genealogy, going to flea markets and reading the paper early in the morning with his coffee. But most of all he loved his family. We miss him so very much.
Beverly Atkins, his granddaughter