Margaret “Peggy” Starr Bondurant

Margaret “Peggy” Starr Bondurant was born August 14, 1921, in Snake Springs, PA to the late Joseph Cornell Starr and Matilda Truehart Middleton Starr. She died May 14, 2025, in Nashville, TN. She was 103. Her life between those dates was filled with family, adventure, public service and so much more.

As an infant, she moved with her parents and six siblings to a farm in Herndon, VA.  When her mother died seven years later, Peggy left school for a year to care for her two youngest siblings.  Her early hardships engendered kindness, respect and open-mindedness toward the vulnerable and those less fortunate.  

It also sparked a creative and clever spirit, a lifelong love of learning, and the self-discipline and courage to live life on her own terms. As an early example, she taught herself not just to read, but to read books turned upside down. As she thrived in school, she and her friends pressed their teachers to allow them to take math and science courses -- classes which laid the foundation for her eventual admission to nursing school.

 On Jan. 3, 1944, she joined the Army Nurse Corps as a second lieutenant in the midst of World War II. She served as an operating room nurse for head trauma at the U.S. Army hospital in Swindon, England, caring for many soldiers coming in from the front in France. Following D-Day, the hospital became the closest full-service American hospital for GIs wounded in Continental Europe. Alongside her surgical duties, Peggy cared for German prisoners housed at a camp adjacent to the hospital. In gratitude, one prisoner sketched her portrait in charcoal. Copies of this piece are kept and treasured by her family members.   She was promoted to first lieutenant in April 1945 and honorably discharged on Feb. 28, 1946.

After the war, Peggy continued her education and received a degree in public health from the Medical College of Virginia. Her adventuresome spirit took her to the southwest Virginia mountains to be a nurse with the Virginia State Public Health Department. Several years later, the department appointed supervisor of nursing services for Russell, Wise and Dickerson counties. As a resident of “Miss Verna Routh’s Boarding House” in Lebanon, Va., she made the acquaintance of young local attorney Thomas Jack Bondurant.  When they met, they discovered they had been at the same English hospital at the same time. While Peggy was treating head wounds, Jack had been recovering in another wing from his own combat wounds.  After much persuasion, Jack convinced the beautiful Peggy Starr to marry him, and she did in 1952. 

 The union brought two children into the world:  Thomas “Tom” Jack Bondurant, Jr. (Roberta) of Bent Mountain, VA and Elizabeth “Betsy” Starr Bondurant Moreland (Jim) of Franklin, TN. In addition to her children, she is survived by five grandchildren, Mary (Molly) Moreland Knowles (Eric) of Stockbridge, GA, Anna Moreland Stewart (Hunter) of Franklin, TN, Kathryn (Kate) Douai Bondurant (Max Connors) of San Francisco, CA, Thomas Jack Bondurant III (Holly Kozak) of Portsmouth, VA, Conor Nick Bondurant (Kimberly Burns) of Marshall, NC, and two great-grandchildren, Mark James Knowles and Madeline Elizabeth Knowles.  

As a working mother, Peggy often travelled alone in her beloved Volkswagen Beetle. Through the 1950s and ’60s, she was often the only medical professional many residents in rural mountainous areas saw. She was proud of her role in helping to irradicate polio in the region by providing vaccinations.  During this effort, Peggy contracted a mild case of the disease which left her bedridden for a short time. But she persevered, she recovered, and she carried on in her multiple roles as wife, mother and medical professional. 

As a family, Peggy and Jack took their children on annual summer camping trips throughout the United States and Canada. They visited every state except Hawaii, and all of Canada’s provinces and territories.

After 25 years with the health department, she joined a team with a child development center in Bristol, VA that diagnosed early development delays, before retiring in 1980.

In retirement, Peggy and Jack travelled the globe, often with friends David and Pat Peck.  She remained creative, curious, well-read, active and down-to-earth. She read the newspaper daily, never failing to complete the crossword puzzle. She kept an organic, mulched “no work” garden, as she called it, and was especially proud of her blueberries and asparagus. With her boundless energy, she loved to walk, outpacing many a companion without intending to. She enjoyed making clothes for her young grandchildren -- and their stuffed animals. She cooked for her friends and family with enthusiasm. More than 50 years ago, she created a “sourdough starter” that many friends and relatives still “feed” and bake with today.  She made her signature “Refrigerator Soup” for her grandchildren when they were sick (or pretending to be).

Peggy and Jack loved being part of their grandchildren’s lives. They enjoyed taking them for special lunches, attending school activities, horse shows, athletic events and theater productions. Avid boosters of Jack’s alma mater, Emory & Henry College, they never missed a Wasps home football game through the many years they lived in Virginia. Peggy was an avid Green Bay Packers fan as well as other professional and college teams.  According to one grandson, a fellow Cheesehead, she could trade game stats and banter like a professional sportscaster.

Peggy was Jack’s sole and fulltime caregiver for several years before he died in 2016. Theirs was a union based upon mutual respect, kindness, love and compassion.  

A few years ago, a grandson asked Peggy her secret to a long life. “Blueberries,” she answered. In context, that word spoke volumes.

In addition to her parents and husband, Peggy was predeceased by her siblings -- Sally, Johnny, George, Mary, Becky and Elma. The family offers special thanks to the staff and caregivers at Brookdale Belle Meade in Nashville.

Peggy kept the following poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox  printed with a drawing of sailing ships in her home:

One ship sails East,

And another West,

By the self-same winds that blow,

‘Tis the set of the sails

And not the gales,

That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the seas

Are the waves of time,

As we journey along through life,

‘Tis the set of the soul

That determines the goal,

And not the calm or strife.

A Celebration of Life is planned at 2 PM on Saturday, May 24, 2025, at Abingdon United Methodist Church, 101 E. Main Street, Abingdon, VA 24210. Visitation will precede the celebration at 1 PM. Burial will follow at 3 PM in Emory & Henry Holston Conference Cemetery, Emory, VA. All are invited to a reception following the burial at Tobias Smith Cabin on the Emory & Henry University campus.

Memorial donations may be made to Heifer International, www.heifer.org, or the E&H Athletics Fund (formerly I-Hey Club) online at www.gowasps.com or by sending a check to P.O. Box 950, Emory, VA 24327.

Frost Funeral Home and Cremation Services is honored to serve the family of Mrs. Margaret “Peggy” Starr Bondurant.