Juanita Moine Pettit

A Celebration of Life for JUANITA MOINE PETTIT, 93, was held at McCormick and Son Chapel in Laguna Hills, California on June 4, 2015. A memorial service will be held at 10am August 15, 2015 at the Colyer Funeral Home Chapel in Torrington with Reverend Jason Harshberger officiating. Burial will follow in the Valley View Cemetery in the Moine family plot next to her parents and husband Jim. Juanita died June 1, 2015 at her home in Laguna Woods, California with her son and daughter at her side. Cremation has taken place. Arrangements are under the direction of the Colyer Funeral Home and friends may send condolences to the family at www.colyerfuneralhome.com. Juanita was born September 9, 1921 in Hillsdale, Wyoming the seventh child of a farming family. Her family was originally from Novelty, Missouri and moved to Wyoming one year before she was born. Being raised on the family farm near Torrington along the North Platte river was always dear to her heart. She enjoyed riding her pony ‘Little Joe’, watching the birds out in the timber and reminisced of her father coming in from the field and having mud pies for tea time. She also loved seeing her mother’s flower garden grow and having her town friends over to enjoy her mother’s cooking. Her school years were special, playing the clarinet in the band and having her brother one class above. She graduated in 1939 from Torrington High School. In 1947, Juanita married James T. Pettit from New York City in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The couple moved to southern California in 1948 where her husband spent his career with American Airlines and she a homemaker and civic volunteer. Their two children, Jim and Cheri, were born in 1949 and 1953. Juanita was an active volunteer for PIA, girl scouts, and church school in San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley, California. She was a loving and dedicated wife and mother, and a good listener. In her late forties, She proudly served as a hospital volunteer and completed a nurse’s aide course. At age fifty-five, she earned her real estate broker license, and for several years worked as a real estate agent. She became a grandmother at age fifty-six and treasured her grandchildren. Juanita and Jim enjoyed many years of travel adventures by air as well as by RV. The entire family enjoyed his ‘on-board’ retirement flight to Hawaii in 1986. Upon retirement, she and Jim spent nineteen years in Green Valley, Arizona. She was a PEO member and enjoyed the garden club during her Arizona years. She and Jim enjoyed those years of friendship with their neighbors, travel club, and weekly breakfast group. In 2006, they returned to Orange County, California for assisted living. She engaged herself in being an integral part of her assisted living community. Juanita had a life well-lived. For those who knew her, Juanita was a hardy woman with great tenacity, yet gentle kindness and one of positive outlook. Juanita was preceded in death by her parents, Eugene Daniel and Laura May (Collins) Moine; six siblings, James, Denver, Delbert, Rayman (Mike), Jenneva and Ione; an infant granddaughter Catherine; and of recent her husband Jim in 2011. She is survived by her two children James H. (Luminita) Pettit of Lake Forest, California, and Cheri (Bill) Pettit Bellamy of Laramie, Wyoming, and grandchildren Jenna and Sara Pettit, John (Julie) Bellamy, Michael (Lindsey) Bellamy, Elizabeth (Jared) Grill, and great-grandchildren Caroline and Lillian Bellamy, Sophia Grill, and soon to be born Bellamy as well as her dear nieces and nephews. She held special lifelong connection with her Torrington childhood friend Betty (Gambill) Riggins and adulthood friends Mary Lou Montoya, Diantha Ain, Virginia Hershey, and John and Bunny Paige. She and her two sisters and oldest brother treasured their bond well into their eighth and ninth decades. Juanita proudly became a great-grandmother at age ninety-one..

Juanita Moine Pettit

September 9, 1921 - June 1, 2015