KP History: Before and After

The Dervaes-Davidson union in 1966 was the only military wedding ever held at the Vaughn Community Church, the oldest house of worship on the Key Peninsula before it was razed after smoke damage from a fire in 2006. All the men in the wedding party wore military dress uniforms with swords; Dervaes was a U.S. Air Force lieutenant at the time. The couple left the church under crossed swords held by six friends. After getting married in June, they deployed to Okinawa in August.

Peggy Dervaes is a descendant of one of the earliest Vaughn homesteading families. In 1888, the Gideon Davidson family of Aberdeen, South Dakota, staked a claim on 80 acres in South Vaughn, now Lackey Road, where the family has lived and farmed ever since. Joe retired from the USAF as a lieutenant colonel in 1983, then became a Washington state auditor investigating fraud for almost 23 years. They live on the Davidson homestead near most of their three children, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.