Age 84, Luray, Va.
Peggy Joan Martin Nuckols, 84, a piano teacher, church organist and Sunday school teacher at Shenandoah Baptist Church for 48 years, passed away peacefully in her home on June 24, 2024.
Born in Gastonia, N.C., on February 3, 1940, Peggy attended Temple Baptist Church in Gastonia as a child and accepted Christ into her life when she was eight years old. She served as organist at Temple from age 12 to 18. She graduated from Meredith College, Raleigh, N.C., with an A.B. degree as an organ major. She obtained her B.C.M. and M.C.M. degrees with a certificate in organ performance from Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
Peggy celebrated her 61st wedding anniversary with the Rev. Hudson Nuckols Jr. two weeks before her passing. The couple moved to Shenandoah in 1967 to serve the Baptist church there.
Peggy taught piano and theory and accompanied choral groups for three years at Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg.
Peggy taught piano students in the basement of the Shenandoah Baptist Church and continued to teach when she and Rev. Nuckols retired to Luray. Her annual spring piano recitals drew a crowd of students and family members. She also taught music theory at Mount Carmel Christian Academy for two years. She touched the lives of hundreds of students of all ages, and many stayed in touch with her for years. She herself remained in communication with her childhood piano and organ teacher, Helen Cloninger, until her death at age 100.
Peggy is preceded in death by her parents, Mae DeVern Martin and Nick Wilson Martin. Her mother worked in the textile mills and later trained to be a practical nurse. Her father worked in machine shops and was called to pastoral ministry, attended Southeastern Seminary as a certificate student, and pastored in six different Baptist churches. Her older brother, Roger Gene Martin, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, served three tours of duty in Vietnam, remained in the Navy for 20 years and was the highly decorated Commander in charge of Naval Petroleum Reserve in Elk Hills, Calif., died in September 2003 of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
She is survived by her husband; two children, Hudson III of Luray, and Christina of Richmond; daughter-in-law Jamie; four grandchildren, Breanna, Christian, Julia and Joshua; and two first cousins, Clifford Crowder (Urve) of Winchester, and Robert Crowder (Diane) of Middletown, Ohio.
The family will receive friends from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 26, at Rileyville Trinity Church, 1007 Rileyville Road, Rileyville, VA 22650.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations in Peggy’s name to Meredith College or Our Daily Bread Ministries, ourdailybread.org.
Arrangements are being handled by The Bradley Funeral Home in Luray, Va.
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