Leona Redles Pendleton

Lifelong Valdosta resident Leona (Lonie) Redles Pendleton died Friday, November 26, 2021 at home at the age of 96. She was born in Little Griffin Hospital in Valdosta, Georgia, on November 18, 1925, to the late Lt. Col. William L. and Leona (Roberts) Redles. After the death of her father, when Leona was six years old, her mother moved Leona and her sister Catherine from Washington, D.C., to Valdosta to be surrounded by family. She grew up in the historic Wisenbaker-Wells-Roberts house, Valdosta’s oldest house in the Fairview Historic District and the home of her grandparents, John T. and Catherine (Young) Roberts. The home was filled with extended family members: aunts, uncles, and cousins. Leona said that she always had someone to play with while growing up.

After attending Valdosta schools, Leona graduated from junior college at Ward Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated from Georgia State Woman’s College (now Valdosta State University) in 1947 with a degree in art. Before she married, Leona worked as a secretary for Dr. Robert Stump (who was later her children’s pediatrician) and urologist Dr. Campbell.

Leona married Albert S. Pendleton, Jr. at the Roberts family home on October 15, 1953. Leona was a stunning bride in a Dior wedding dress trimmed in embroidery cut from a roll of silk that her late father had brought back from his tenure in Japan. Leona and Albert had known each other since kindergarten. Albert liked to joke and say that she pursued him, but that was hard to imagine, given Leona’s reserved manner. It was more likely the other way around.

Leona and Albert had five children, so their home was always noisy and somewhat chaotic, but Leona was a very patient mother. She said once that for ten straight years, she had at least one baby in diapers. She was a member of First Baptist Church where she taught Sunday School and sang in the choir. She was a member of the Valdosta Junior Service League, the Cotillion Club, the Mystery Ball Club, and Readers Forum. It seemed she was always on the decorating committee of one of her clubs because of her artistic talent. She went to work for her husband, Albert, as a secretary in the family business, the A. S. Pendleton Company Wholesale Grocers, after her youngest child entered elementary school. She was only going to help him out for a little while, but she stayed until the business closed in the early 1970s. She then enrolled in Valdosta State College (now University) to pursue a nursing degree. She worked as a Registered Nurse at South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta as charge nurse on postpartum for 13 years before retiring. Leona was an amazing craftswoman and a very talented artist. Her handicrafts included sewing, knitting, crocheting, cross-stitching, tatting lace, needlepoint, embroidery, painting, drawing, as well as many others pursuits. She had a love of history and of reading, evident by the stacks and stacks of books throughout her home.

Leona is survived by her sister Catherine Redles; her five children: Catherine Pendleton, Andy Pendleton (Janine), John Pendleton (Brenda), Melissa Pendleton, and Helen Pendleton; seven grandchildren: Bucky Allen (Lisa), Kathleen Allen, Ashley Claypool, Savannah Claypool, John George Pendleton, Marylee Pendleton, and Lexie Miller; five great grandchildren: Jabin Davis, Carlen Davis, Laurel Allen, Emma Price, and Bruce Pendleton.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday, November 30, 2021, at Carson McLane Funeral Home with Charles Owens and Mac Weaver of First Baptist Church officiating. Burial will follow at Sunset Hill Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 10:00 to 11:00 am prior to the service at 11:00am. Condolences to the family may be expressed online at www.mclanecares.com. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Leona’s honor to Hospice of South Georgia or the American Cancer Society.