Neta P. Peppers, 80, of Madison, died Sunday, Jan. 29, after a month-long illness.
She was born in Jackson County, Ga., to the late Robert M. and Effie T. Pinson. They moved to Madison in 1936. She graduated from Madison High School in 1948. After finishing business school, she started working as a bookkeeper for The Farmer’s Hardware, a job she held for 30 years. In 1978 she bought The Farmer’s Hardware Co.
After selling the hardware business in 1981, she began a small wholesale floral supply business out of the trunk of her car. Within a few years she had customers from Highlands, N.C. to Fernandina Beach, Fla. She retired in 1997.
She was active in Beacon Heights Baptist Church from its founding in 1950. She was also active in the Morgan County Historical Society and served as a docent at Heritage Hall and the Roger House historic homes in Madison.
For more than 40 years, she was an active member of the Georgia Federation of Business and Professional Women. In 1980-81 she served as the organization’s state president. Through the federation she was active in lobbying state legislatures and Congress to support the Equal Rights Amendment and legislation to support equal pay for equal work for women.
Mrs. Peppers was the first woman president of Madison Chamber of Commerce.
She is survived by her husband of 63 years, Ray Artis Peppers of Madison and their four children, daughter Beverly and Richard Conner of Madison; sons Ray Peppers of Benton, Tenn., Bruce and Patsy Peppers of Madison and daughter, Faith Peppers and John Bazemore of Roswell. She was a loving grandmother to four grandchildren Matthew and Charlie Conner of Madison, Carol Peppers of Madison and Jack and Anna Grace Bazemore of Roswell and two great-grandchildren Brittni Green of Oklahoma City, Okla., and Aynslee Conner of Madison.
She has three surviving sisters: Leaverne Brown of Madison, Martha Pearson of Milledgeville and Sandra Willoughby of Athens. She was preceded in death by three brothers: Emmett, Worth and Foster Pinson.
Services will be held Wednesday, Jan. 30 at 11 a.m. at A. E. Carter Funeral Home in Madison. Flowers can be sent to the funeral home or memorial donations can be made to Beacon Heights Baptist Church Youth or the Morgan County 4-H Foundation.

Printed in the January 31, 2013 edition