John A. Penix

1922 - 2022

John A. Penix
April 16, 1922 - January 12, 2022
Raleigh, North Carolina - Funeral services for retired U.S. postmaster and World War II veteran John Andrew Penix, 99, will be held at Noon Feb. 3 at Haywood Funeral Home in Raleigh. An 11:00 a.m. visitation and viewing will precede the service in the chapel. He died January 12 in Atlanta.
Born April 16, 1922 at McCullers Crossroads near Garner, he joined Juniper Level Baptist Church about 1936. He attended the four-room Panther Branch Rosenwald elementary school and graduated from Garner Consolidated High School in 1942. He attended Fayetteville College and graduated in 1950, earning a B.A. Degree in Education.
During World War II he served as a staff sergeant in the (Army) Third Air Force at McDill Airfield in Tampa, FL, Dale Mabry Airfield in Tallahassee, Guam in the South Pacific and was honorably discharged in 1947.
In September 1950, he married fellow Fayetteville State student Burmahdeen Tyler of Oxford, NC and to that union two children were born.
In February 1952, Mr. Penix began a 30-year career with the U.S. Postal Service in Washington, DC. He held offices in Local 50, Mail Handlers Union in Dayton, Ohio and the National Postal Union. He was an Equal Employment Opportunity Officer, investigator of the U.S. Postal Central Region and retired as postmaster of the Yellow Springs (Ohio) Post Office.
In October 1960 he moved to Dayton, Ohio as a single parent and the following year married Osceola Martin. He joined Trinity United Presbyterian Church under the leadership of Rev. James I. Davis and served as chairman of the Trustee Board.
He moved to Raleigh in 1980 and began a second career as a broker with Jordan and Hicks Real Estate Company for 14 years. He married Evelyn Luney in 1982. Mr. Penix was a presiding elder and trustee of Davie Street Church under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Byron Wade.
A lifetime member of the NAACP, in 1989 he performed the swearing in of the Raleigh chapter's new officers.
A past president of the Raleigh/Wake Chapter of the FSU Alumni Association, he was a recipient of the Chancellor's Certificate of Merit and was honored as a distinguished alumnus by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education Leadership Conference in Washington, DC.
In 1996 he organized the Bronco Brickyard project, which raised more than $80,000 for FSU and he gifted the brickyard's white Bronco statue to the school. He proudly sported his Bronco blue suit to church when FSU's football or basketball team had been victorious over one of its CIAA rivals.
He is survived by a daughter, J. Andrea Penix Smith of New York City and son, Dr. LaRoy Pete Penix of Atlanta; Mrs. Margaret "Peggy" (Pettus) Hickman of Wilmington, DE, a niece raised as his youngest sister; three grandchildren, Granville H. Smith II of NYC, Mrs. Jonsi (Charles) McGill of Stockton, CA and Alexander Penix of Atlanta; five great-grandchildren, Jorddan, Sydni and Jody Smith and Charles Justin and Malcolm McGill; and a host of devoted nieces and nephews. Preceding him in death were his wife Evelyn; parents, Cicero and Janie Penix; six sisters, Mrs. Lucille Bell, Mrs. Teabell Cooper, Mrs. Ruby Baldwin, infant Elizabeth Penix, Mrs. Louise Jones and Mrs. Ava Jane Overstreet; four brothers, William H, Edward, C. Warren and Robert Penix; a grandson, Justin H. Smith; and John Holden, his closest friend.
Burial will follow in the veterans' section of Carolina Biblical Gardens in Raleigh. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Fayetteville State University's John A. Penix Endowed Scholarship Fund. Payments may be made online by selecting the fund at https://www.uncfsu.edu/give-to-fsu.