“Penny” Wilson Weeks

Posted on May 31, 2024

Penny Wilson Weeks, 85, died May 15, 2024, in St. Augustine. She was born Nov. 24, 1938, in Pavo, Ga., the daughter of Samuel Dallas Wilson I and Ella Mae Hutcheson Wilson. Her family moved from Thomas County, Ga., in the 1950s when her father left farming to come to Perry, seeking employment building a new state-of-the-art cellulose pulp processing plant. Penny graduated from Taylor County High School in 1956, where she played on the girls basketballteam. After high school, she married Herman Lee Knight and they had two children, daughter, Carole, and son, Denny. She worked as a pharmacy technician at Rexall Drug Store in downtown Perry and, later, at Andrew Drugs. She married Jesse Weeks in October 1967, and the couple moved to Central Florida. Penny worked first with McKesson-Robbins Drug Warehouse and then embarked on a career in the convenience store industry, rising from assistant store manager to, ultimately, area operations director. Through her innovative ideas and ways of doing business, she garnered respect as a leader in the industry throughout the entire southeastern United States. She set a pace in the industry that was so progressive that many of her ideas are still used to this day. Penny retired in the early 2000s, and moved back to Perry. Following the death of Jesse in 2017 and with the onset of health issues, Penny relocated to St. Augustine in recent months to live with her daughter, Carole. Her family misses her sadly and will always remember her fondly. Penny was preceded in death by: her husband of 49 years, Jesse Weeks; her parents, Samuel Dallas Wilson I and Ella Mae Hutcheson Wilson; and a brother, Samuel Dallas Wilson II. She is survived by: her son, Denny Knight; daughter, Carole Odom; sister, Ella Mae Wilson Parrish; grandchildren, Eric S. Knight of Perry and Katherine Knight Day of Austin, Texas; and great-grandchildren, Mason Day and Kelsy Day, both of Austin. A Celebration of Life service is planned at a future date.