PEKIN ~ Virginia Elizabeth Thayer, 94, of 1415 James Road, passed away on Monday, September 3, 2007 pleasantly in her sleep at her home in Pekin.

She was born July 11, 1913 in Macon County, Missouri to Robert Elsworth and Edna Mary (Rector) Stone and attended Moberly High School and Moberly Junior College.  She then taught in a rural school in Macon County for two years.

In 1935, Miss Stone enrolled at the University of Missouri and was elected Secretary of the School of Education, an honorary position.  She was inducted into the Alpha Chapter of Pi Lambda Theta, a national honorary sorority in Education, by the founder of the sorority, Ella Victoria Dobbs.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education in June 9, 1937.  That afternoon she married Franklin F. Thayer in Columbia, Missouri, the Principal and Basketball Coach of the New Franklin (Missouri) High School.

For three years Mrs. Thayer was the Correspondence Instructor of Geography at the University of Missouri until she moved to Sparta in 1940.  In 1947, she and her family moved to Pekin, when Mr. Thayer became the Chemistry teacher at Pekin Community High School.  She became a member of the Pekin Woman's Club and Tazewell Chapter of the American Association of University Women.  She served as President of the Pekin Newcomers Club and Washington Junior High Mothers Club.

While attending graduate school at Bradley University, she became a charter member of the Alpha Omega Chapter of Pi Lambda Theta of Bradley University.  At that time Mrs. Thayer was a sixth grade teacher for Pekin Public Schools District 108 at Douglas, Jefferson and Washington Junior High Schools from 1952 to 1959.

For thirty years, Virginia was secretary and office manager of her husband's State Farm Insurance Agency in Pekin until their retirement on December 31, 1986.   Mr. Thayer died March 12, 1992 in Peoria.  She also was preceded in death by her parents and one sister, Mildred Arnold.

Surviving are one daughter, E. Joan (John) Butler of Glen Ivy, Calif.; two sons, Robert E. Thayer of Canton and Harold F. "Shawn" Thayer of Newport Beach, Calif.; six grandchildren, Heather Butler of Glen Ivy, Tescha Thayer of (Huntington Beach, Calif.) Pleasant Prairie, Wisc.., Tyana (Kirat) Shah of Washington, D.C., Tyler Thayer of Huntington Beach, Calif., Lindsay Thayer and Kurt Thayer, both of Newport Beach and one brother, John J. (Dorothy) Stone of Shawnee Mission, Kansas.

Virginia was a faithful member of Grace United Methodist Church in Pekin, where she was a member of the United Methodist Women, the Rachel-Sarah Circle and the Friendship Club.  She also was a member of the Christian Women's Club of Pekin, the Tazewell County Retired Teachers Association and the Wee-Ma-Tuk Country Club.  She was a former member of the Pekin Country Club.

She was devoted to her husband and family.  Virginia truly was an elegant lady.

Her funeral was at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, September 8, 2007 at Grace United Methodist Church in Pekin.  The Rev. Gary L. Ford officiated. Virginia was laid to rest next to Franklin at Glendale Memorial Gardens in Pekin.  Arrangements were entrusted to Preston-Hanley Funeral Home,