Jean Ann Van Kleek Pettigrew

Published 9:19 am Friday, June 13, 2025

Jean Ann Van Kleek Pettigrew, 94, passed away peacefully on June 7, 2025. She was born on December 2, 1930, in St Petersburg, Florida, to John R Van Kleek of Auburn, New York, and Daisy (Joan) Hill of St Petersburg, Russia.

Her family resided in Florida and New York before relocating to Caracas, Venezuela, where Jean spent most of her formative years in the 1940s. Although living internationally, Jean traveled to the US often and attended Emma Willard School in Troy, NY (1946-1949) and Cornell University in Ithaca, NY (1949-1953), where she earned a degree in Creative Writing. Her international lifestyle and passion for education and English were key influences in Jean’s later career in teaching and the arts.

In 1954, Jean married R. Shaw Pettigrew (1919-1988) of Greensburg, PA, in Caracas, Venezuela. Jean and Shaw began their family in Venezuela and Colombia and had three children, J Lane Pettigrew (Guatemala), D Eric Pettigrew (London, UK), and Julie Ellis (Charlotte, NC).

In the 1960s, Jean and Shaw and their young family moved to Tryon, NC, where Jean’s parents had retired. They loved living in western North Carolina yet also continued to have an international lifestyle, welcoming many international visitors as well as traveling as a family. Jean resided in Tryon for the next 60+ years and spent her last ten years at Tryon Estates, Columbus, NC.

Interested in teaching as a career, in 1964 Jean earned a master’s degree in English from Converse University, Spartanburg, SC. Her entire teaching career of 20 years was in Polk County at Saluda School, Tryon High School, and Polk Central High School. In 1984, Jean was named ”Teacher of the Year” in Region VIII, NC, for her outstanding contributions to the education of academically gifted students.

Once becoming a grandmother, Jean became known as “Nana” to her eight grandchildren: JC Briganti (Greenville, SC), Lizzy Pettigrew (Los Angeles, CA), James Pettigrew (Brooklyn, NY), Catherine Pettigrew (Brooklyn, NY), Roman Pettigrew (Portland, OR), Josh Ellis (Boston, MA), Jenny Hahn (Germany), and Jessie Coe (United Kingdom).

The same enthusiasm and passion that Jean was known for in teaching was now the focus of love for her grandchildren and their families. She traveled the world both to be with and to travel with each one and lovingly enjoyed “spoiling them rotten,” which would simply mean creative and fun adventures. For her family, her students, and others whose lives she touched, she was a force of nature, a source of positive energy. Jean was creative, determined, loyal and passionate about the people and causes that were central to her life.

If one were to adapt Einstein’s formula for energy (e= mc2), in Jean Pettigrew’s case, it would be enthusiasm= mom’s creativity2. She channeled her enthusiastic, creative energy in many ways.

As a teacher, from six-year-olds in Saluda to gifted high school students to retirees in the community, she won both official accolades and the respect of her students and peers.

As an agent for change, she was a founder of AFS in Polk County, bringing foreign students to study in Polk County and sending teens overseas to have international experience, drawing on her own experience of living in South America.

As an organizer, she was a creative force and supporter of the arts at FENCE, Tryon Fine Arts Center, and the Upstairs Gallery, dreaming up galas and events like Picnic in the Park, the Peoplechase, and Savoyards, which produced Gilbert and Sullivan shows.

As an artist in her own right, she created her own style of quilts and wearable art. As a tenor, she sang in the choir of Holy Cross and the Tryon Community Chorus.

As an educator post-retirement, she gave lectures on Shakespeare, poetry seminars and other literary topics at the Lanier Library and Polk County Library.

But perhaps above all, she channeled most of this energy through the love, pride, and effort she put into her family, her grandchildren, and now three great-grandchildren. Her passion for education has been instilled in her beloved family as they are now doctors, nurses, creative directors, media creators, landscape architects – all of whom are international and scattered all over the world – USA, Central America, Germany, and the UK.

In her life of 94 years, she instilled a creative power which endures and which will endure within us all.

In an interview for the Bulletin in 2000, Jean was asked which of all her accomplishments in Polk County was she most proud of. Jean answered, “I am really most proud that I have had the opportunity to bring pleasure and enrichment to the lives of a wide variety of people in this fine community.”

Her life will be honored at a memorial service at the Church of the Holy Cross, Tryon, NC on Saturday, June 21 at 11:00AM.

An online guest register is available at www.mcfarlandfuneralchapel.com

McFarland Funeral Chapel

Tryon