Irma Ingraham
RONAN — Peggy Ingraham, 90, passed away on Sept. 22, 2015, at St. Luke’s Hospital. She had lived at her family home on Terrace Lake Road east of Ronan for fifty years.
Peggy was born May 14, 1925, on her family’s farm on the plains of western South Dakota near the White River, where Lewis and Clark once saw herds of 3,000 buffalo. She had a deep love of the open prairie and a strong respect for family values instilled by previous generations of farmers. Peggy lived life to its fullest and inspired many in her devotion to family, children, books, music, and God.
She was raised during the Great Depression and often said her Dad told her “it is not a disgrace to be poor but it is inconvenient.” Growing up with no electricity, little water, grasshopper infestations and dust that drifted as high as the wire fences, Peggy learned to be resourceful and resilient. Despite the hardships of living on an isolated farm, Peggy had a happy childhood. She cut paper dolls out of the Sears catalogue, picked wild flowers, loved community barn dances, and sometimes just watched the prairie dogs for entertainment. She rode horseback three miles to her one room country schoolhouse. She remembers her father selling a calf and her mom taking in ironing to pay for a piano for her and her three sisters.
Shortly before Peggy graduated high school, Pearl Harbor was bombed. In order to pay for her college in Rapid City, she and her father raised baby chicks. She worked a number of jobs across the country including one at the Hanford facility in Washington where Peggy was told only that they were working on something that would end World War II. Peggy’s work life then took another direction and her love of children and family lead her to work with adoption agencies and the Wilshire Methodist Church in Los Angeles.
It was there that she met, Lloyd, her husband of 66 years. It was love at first dance and they married on Sept. 24, 1948. After starting a family, Lloyd and Peggy returned to Ronan, where they raised six children, moving to LA for four years so Lloyd could pursue his dream of attending law school. After returning to Ronan, Peggy began work in 1973 as the Ronan Elementary School librarian, working until 1990, again fulfilling her love of children and books. Students laughed about her Dr. Seuss hat and shoes almost as much as she did.
In retirement, Peggy and Lloyd traveled extensively but always loved returning to their Mission Mountain home. They found ways to reflect the places they visited in the landscaped gardens they built on their property. Peggy hosted many garden tea parties for her neighbors and she and Lloyd organized golf tournaments for their friends far and wide. Peg and Lloyd also loved challenging their visitors to a rousing game of Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit.
Prefaced in a memoir she wrote for her children and grandchildren in 2012 is the quote, “Where we love is Home that our feet may leave but not our hearts.”(Oliver Wendell Holmes)
Peggy’s son Greg (fiancée Linda Foust) and five daughters: Glenda Pate (Gordon), Cheryl Hughes (Stan), Nancy Hadley (Tony), Marla Lango (Steve), and Jill Curtis (Peter); 11 grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and one sister, Alice Horsley, all survive her. She is preceded in death by her husband, Lloyd; her parents, Edgar and Minnie Frisbie; and three sisters, Edna Lake (Eddie), June Dowling (Bub) and Patricia (who died as an infant).
There will be a memorial service in celebration of Peggy’s life on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015, at 11 a.m. at the Mennonite Church (211 Fourth Street SE, Ronan). That site of worship is one of the anchors of Peggy’s spiritual life. She spent nearly forty years as a Methodist within those walls and most of her children and grandchildren were baptized and married there. A reception will follow at the Ingraham home east of Ronan (35577 Terrace Lake Road). For those who wish to honor Peggy’s memory, her family suggests donations be made to the Ronan Public Library District (203 Main Street, SW, Ronan, MT 59864).
