Peggy Dean Virginia Darby Royce, 92, passed away on Tuesday, February 9, 2021 at her residence in Tifton, GA.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 11:00 A.M., in 1st United Methodist Church with Rev. Chip Grantham and Rev. Landon Alberson officiating.  A private interment will follow at Oakridge Cemetery.  The family will receive family and friends 1 hour prior to service at 1st United Methodist Church, Tifton, GA. The service will be live streamed from the church. You may go to the church’s You tube page at Tifton FUMC or www.facebook.com/tiftonfumc.

Pallbearers will be:  Erick Hienz, Jim Mallory, Paul Burkhart, Lon Barfield, Keith Gosse and Wes Ehlers.

Peggy was born September 12, 1928 to the late Theodore & Bertha Drew Darby in Raleigh, WVA and raised in Beaver, WVA.  After graduation Peggy moved to Washington, DC. She attended Strayer College and then worked for Chesapeake and Potomac Phone Co. She married Charles Lyner, moved with her new husband to a military base in Sindai, Japan where they later welcomed their baby daughter Debrah L. Ehlers.  After moving back to the USA, she once again was employed with Chesapeake and Potomac Phone Co. in Washington, DC where she raised her daughter. Many years later in her successful career she met the love of her life Francis A. Royce, Sr. to who she was married to for 44 years.  They traveled all over the USA square and round dancing and made lifelong friends with so many people.  When Peggy retired from Southwestern Bell after 33 years, she and her husband Francis Royce moved to Pharr, TX and then to Tifton, GA to be closer to their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. Mrs. Royce was a member of First United Methodist Church of Tifton, GA and a lifelong member of the Eastern Star.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by Francis A. Royce, Sr. her loving husband and beloved stepson Francis "Arthur" Royce, Jr. Also, preceding Peggy are all of her siblings and their spouses.  June (Garnett) Moore, Ted (Cecelia) Darby, Helen (Stan) Lloyd, Betty (Don) Appel, Frank Darby, Bill (Kay) Darby.

Mrs. Royce is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law Debrah Lyner (John) Ehlers, Tifton, GA; Ledra Royce (Carl) Bailey, Boyton, FL and daughter-in-law Mary Royce of Cumberland, MD.  Grandchildren, Mark (Misty) Ehlers, Jennifer (Keith) Gosse, Wes (Erica) Ehlers, Tara (Erick) Hienz, Loree (Jim) Mallory, Meredith (Paul) Burkhart.; Great-grandchildren Cheyenne (EJ) Harris, Peyton Ehlers, Ellie, Zara and Garrett Gosse, Connor Hienz, Keegan and Pendley Ehlers.

A special thank you to Amedisys Home Health Joanna Graves, Marla Marlow, Joy Abantao and Regina Mancil; GA Home Living Senior Care Debbie Edenfield, Tamika Royster and Hospice of Tift Area:  Landon Alberson, Crystal Howell, April Bailey, Angela Searcy, Michelle Willard.  

Flowers will be accepted, or donations may be made to 1st United Methodist Church, 107 W 12th Street, Tifton, GA. 31794 or Hospice of Tift Area, PO Box 747, 618 N. Central Avenue, Tifton, GA. 31794.

Albritton Funeral Directors is in charge of the arrangements.