She continued her Real Estate career in 1999, when she and Wes moved to San Jose del Cabo, Mexico eventually starting up her own RE/MAX office where she was working until her recent decline in health.
She was known for her tireless energy and big heart which led her to help whomever she could.
In 1963 the family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Mom worked for a large construction company in Redwood City as a full service bookkeeper from 1964 to 1974. In 1974, she began her career in real estate in Half Moon Bay. She found her calling when she opened her own real estate office in 1979, and she never looked back.
She met the love of her life, John Wesley “Wes” Keith Pepper, in 1954 in Roswell, New Mexico. Mom was a car hop on roller skates and dad was a right gunner on a B-29 in the U.S. Air Force. He and his buddies would drive into town from the base and pull up to the hamburger joint. She said he had such a big smile and was smiling all the time which at first made her suspicious. They married in Roswell on March 19, 1955 and had three children together. Teresa Anne was born in 1956, John Wesley in 1958 and Terri Lynne in 1960.
In 1946, the family moved to Artesia, Stephens County, New Mexico, when Mom was about 9 or 10. She attended schools there through her high school years. In 1955 she was working as a waitress at a small cafe in Artesia during the week and then on week-ends she worked at Greer's Drive-In in Roswell, where she met my dad.
In Oklahoma, one of her favorite people as a young child was her grandmother Alice Cora (Daugherty) Roork. Her grandmother attended the Assembly of God church and read her Holy Bible everyday. Grandma Roork called her "Evelyn Joye." Mom said she lived near or nextdoor to Grandma Roork and visited her often when she was young until they moved to Artesia, New Mexico in 1946.
My mom, Evelyn Joye (Roork) Pepper, was born in Marlow, Stephens County, Oklahoma on 20 August 1936. She was the firstborn child of Claud Franklin and Rachel Faye (Sammon) Roork.
Her father Claud was the descendant of Irishman, Thomas Roork, who arrived in the colonies before the American Revolution in about 1770. Her grandmother was also a direct descendant of an Irishman, Michael Mor Daugherty and his wife Catherine Rodgers.
Mom knew she was very Irish and in recent years she wanted to visit Ireland. Unfortunately, this never happened. I am hoping to make the trip for her in the next few years.
