About Bob & Katie

John Robert :Bob" Peace and Cynthia Katheleen "Katie" Harvey were married in the Autumn of 1932. Bob, 28, was away from his family, working in the Columbus Ohio area. His mother and sister lived in Oklahoma, and his father had died in 1918. Katie was just eighteen years old, daughter of Vinton County farmer, Noah Harvey and his wife Florence Cooper Harvey. The following spring, son John Robert Peace Jr was born, and within a few years son Raymond Dwight Peace and daughter Noretta Beatrice Peace joined the family. The marriage was promising but difficult, and the grim economic climate of the Great Depression did nothing to improve their situation. Bob had a long "Scotch" streak, specializing in simplicity, thrift and industry. He enjoyed raising rabbits, geese, chickens, ducks and turkeys in his later years, along with a large garden. Katie had an amazing gifts; she was an immaculate housekeeper, could create beauty out of very little around the home, had a strong knack for home decor, and her vegetable and flower gardens were breathtakingly beautiful and productive in her later years.
However, in the difficult Depression days, Bob rode the rails to other states trying to find work to support his family. Katie struggled at home with small children. Bob and Katie divorced in about 1944, with many misunderstandings and disappointments, and long lonely years intervened for both of them. However, important lessons of thrift, industriousness, cheerfulness, helping others and strong sibling bond survived the devastation, and have blessed the family for generations.
After the divorce, Bob moved to Southern California to be near his mother and sister. The children occasionally visited him there. Katie raised the children alone, and they have all turned out to be good, honorable people. They learned to depend on themselves and one another, and helped their mother and father. They enjoyed warm extended family relationships, particularly with Bob's mother Eunice and sister Ethel, and their Harvey relatives. September 19, 1957 marked the day Noretta arrived in Southern California to stay. Raymond came soon afterward, and Bob and his family in the mid-1960's. Katie moved to Southern California with her husband Warren Church in the 1960's, to be near the grandchildren. Warren died unexpectedly in 1969, and, after a short time, Katie married Adam Kirkendoll.  Bob enjoyed treating the family to Christmas dinner at a local restaurant, such as Bing's or Mickey D's, and included Katie and Adam in the invitation.
At the end of Bob's mortal life, his body ravaged by lung and other cancers, Katie stepped in to assist other family members in watching over him in his last days. They talked, reminisced, and generally found friendship with each other, bringing long years of disappointment and struggle to a peaceful end.