Peggy Jansons Craft

CRAFT, PEGGY JANSONS

Reston Pioneer Peggy Jansons Craft

A Legacy of Love and Laughter

A Reston resident since 1965, Peggy died Saturday, February 15, 2003, at her home on Lake Anne following a 15-year fight with breast cancer. By her side were husband, Larry Craft; daughter Lisa Gray, and son Martin Jansons.

Peggy was born on November 17, 1933, in the small southwest Virginia town of Haysi, to Gorman and Estelle Sutherland. Gorman was a Primitive Baptist Minister, and Estelle was sole proprietor of Haysi Department Store. Peggy's first venture out of Dickenson County was to Radford College in Radford, VA, where she met her first husband, George Jansons, who graduated from the neighboring VPI School of Architecture. After marrying, Peggy and George travelled to locations where he was stationed in the US Navy. In Corona, California, their son Martin was born, and Adak, Alaska, was the birthplace of daughter Lisa. In 1960, the couple settled in the Washington, DC area.

It was only a few short years before the couple learned of Robert E. Simon's dream of a new kind of community named Reston. They moved there in 1965, and George was one of the earlier architects to practice in the new town. Peggy worked at the original Reston Community Center at Lake Anne Plaza, and later served on the RCC Board of Governors from 1981-1985. Peggy was an early chidhood educator and spent many years as a teacher from the beginnings of LANK (Lake Anne Nursery Kindergarten). But then she was bitten by the entrepreneural bug.

Peggy is remembered to this day by the many children who attended PALS Early Learning Center, a businesslaunched in 1975 by Peggy and her neighbor and very close friend Lynn Lilienthal. PALS was the first daycare operation in Fairfax County licensed to provide infant care, and was very successful, growing from a handful of children in its first year to more than 270 when Peggy and Lynn retired in 1998.

It was the young and recently widowed business woman that caught the eye and eventually the heart ofPeggy's second husband, Larry Craft, himself a widower. The two were married in 1986 at the Reston Community Center at Hunter's Woods. A few years later, Larry opened his own business in commercial real estate, NOVA Commercial Realty in Reston, a venture he continues to run after its buy-out in 2000 by Randall Hagner.

Preceding Peggy in death were sister Pat Davis, brother Jim Sutherland, and son-in-law Robert Gray. She is survived by husband Larry, son Martin and his wife Patsy, of Blacksburg, VA; daughter Lisa, of Orlando, FL; three grandchildren, Lynne and Bennett Jansons and Tristan Gray; a sister, Emma O'Quinn, and brother Bob Sutherland, both of Haysi, VA.

Peggy's wonderful life will be celebrated by her many friends and loving family at a memorial service on Thursday, February 20, at 1 p.m., at the Washington Plaza Baptist Church on Lake Anne Plaza. Friends may call on the family at home from 5 to 7 p.m. that evening.

Contributions in her memory may be made to Hospice of Northern Virginia, 209 Gibson Street, Suite 202, Leesburg, VA 20176.