Margaret L. (Peggy) Person died peacefully at the age of 97 Thursday, March 20, 2014 at her apartment at Touchmark.
Peggy Wilson was born March 9, 1917 to Douglas N. Wilson and Ethel Louise (Lambie) Wilson in Great Falls, Montana where she grew up. She loved telling childhood stories about family trips she took throughout Montana in the family’s Maxwell automobile, when camping along the roadside was the norm for accommodations. The family enjoyed a cabin at Power Coulee that was the center of many outdoor adventures. Peggy was an avid swimmer and sharp-shooter and was very active in a wide range of school activities including playing flute in the band. Her abiding love of the outdoors was a gift passed on to her children who at her knee learned the names of the flowers, the joys of cold mountain streams, and the bracing sweetness of the mountain air.
Upon graduation from Great Falls High School, Peggy attended the University in Missoula (then called Montana State University) where she majored in English. While at the University, she continued playing the flute and was active in the Delta Gamma Sorority, eventually serving as Chapter President. She also spent one memorable summer working at the Two Medicine Chalet in Glacier National Park, which left her with wonderful memories.
Upon graduation from the University, Peggy taught for a year at Billings High School then returned to Great Falls to teach in the High School there. In 1941, she, along with a group of other teachers, decorated a mess hall for a Christmas celebration for the airmen stationed at Gore Field. There she met the young officer in charge of the mess, Bruce A. Person of Wauneta, Nebraska. They dated and on one of their early dates, they went ice skating. At one point, Peggy fell and Bruce ran over her finger with his skate. He jested to her father that since he had damaged his daughter, there was nothing to do but marry her, so the next summer they were married.
Soon after their marriage, the Army Air Corps transferred them to Coral Gables, Florida where they had their first child, and then to San Rafael, California. Following the war, they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where her husband completed the college degree he had started before the war. The family then moved to Denver, Colorado where her husband studied architecture, a field that eventually led the family, now with two children, back to Peggy’s beloved Montana where they settled in Missoula and eventually Kalispell.
While in Missoula, Peggy resumed teaching high school English as a substitute teacher at Missoula County High School. She later resumed full time teaching responsibilities in the English faculty at Flathead High School.
Upon her retirement from teaching, Peggy remained active in the Kalispell community volunteering in schools and other community groups. She remained an active member of the AAUW, PEO, First Presbyterian Church, Friends of the Library, and maintained many strong friendships. She also traveled extensively in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Following a period of failing health she moved from Kalispell to Helena late in 2013.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Bruce A. Person, her brother D. Norman Wilson, and her son-in-law Michael Kress. She is survived by her sisters Helen Wilson and Muriel Buckley of Great Falls; her son Bob Person and his wife Toni of Helena; her daughter Kathryn Kress of Missoula, as well as four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
The family is extremely grateful for the excellent care she received from the staff at Touchmark who were above and beyond in their very personal services to her. Hospice of St. Peter’s and their team were also key supporters if for a very short time at the end of life.
Memorials may be made to the nature or wild animal conservation organization of your choice.
Retz Funeral Home in Helena is in charge of arrangements. A memorial service will be held at the First Presbyterian Church in Great Falls on Saturday, March 29 at 1:00 p.m. followed by a reception in the social hall of the church. Interment will follow reception at the Hillcrest Memorial Mausoleum in Great Falls. Please visit below to offer the family a condolence or to share a memory of Peggy.
Service Schedule
Memorial Service
1:00 p.m.
Saturday March 29, 2014
First Presbyterian Church
1315 Central Ave
Great Falls, Montana 59405
Reception
Immediately following the memorial service
Saturday March 29, 2014
First Presbyterian Church
1315 Central Ave.
Great Falls, Montana 59405
Interment
Immediately following reception.
Saturday March 29, 2014
Hillcrest Memorial Mausoleum
1410 13th Street South
Great Falls, Montana 59403
Service Schedule
Memorial Service
1:00 p.m.
Saturday March 29, 2014
First Presbyterian Church
1315 Central Ave
Great Falls, Montana 59405
Reception
Immediately following the memorial service
Saturday March 29, 2014
First Presbyterian Church
1315 Central Ave.
Great Falls, Montana 59405
Interment
Immediately following reception.
Saturday March 29, 2014
Hillcrest Memorial Mausoleum
1410 13th Street South
Great Falls, Montana 59403
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David Colburn says
You don’t know me. I taught with Peggy Pearson for several years at Flathead High School. She frequented a desk in the English office near the desk I used, and we would talk. I would relieve the stress of classroom teaching by mispronouncing a word in conversation and she would laugh and exaggerate the mispronunciation and say it back to me. Specifically, I would give an exaggerated emphasis to the second syllable of ArLEE. She would frequently speak of “going to Arlee,” where I believe her daughter lived.
I have moved out of Montana since retirement–moved to New York State where my wife and I attended to our mothers in their last years. I can only think of Peggy Pearson as I remember her as she was then–good natured and serene, but when I left Montana, Montana time froze. I am distressed to learn of her death.
David Colburn says
You don’t know me. I taught with Peggy Pearson for several years at Flathead High School. She frequented a desk in the English office near the desk I used, and we would talk. I would relieve the stress of classroom teaching by mispronouncing a word in conversation and she would laugh and exaggerate the mispronunciation and say it back to me. Specifically, I would give an exaggerated emphasis to the second syllable of ArLEE. She would frequently speak of “going to Arlee,” where I believe her daughter lived.
I have moved out of Montana since retirement–moved to New York State where my wife and I attended to our mothers in their last years. I can only think of Peggy Pearson as I remember her as she was then–good natured and serene, but when I left Montana, Montana time froze. I am distressed to learn of her death. – See more at: https://retzmemorials.com/obituaries/margaret-l-person-age-97-of-great-falls/#sthash.LHfIz18l.dpuf