Mary Margaret Meserve, age 90 of Buckley, died June 11th. Always called Peggy, she was born on December 12, 1927 in Douglas, Wyoming, to Jess and Kathryn (Harrington) Kateron. The second of four daughters, she was raised in northern Idaho.
Peggy graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1945 and began her studies at the University of Idaho. While there, she was set up on a blind date with Carl Meserve, whose family was also from Sandpoint. The two were married in December 1949 in the middle of a snowstorm.
At the time, Carl was a college senior and Peggy was pursuing her master’s degree in business education. After they both graduated from the University of Idaho the following June, they moved to Illinois, then to Neah Bay, Washington, then to California before settling in the Seattle area in 1954 when Carl became employed by the Boeing Company. Peggy and Carl raised their three daughters in Bellevue, Washington, but spent more than eight years “in the field”, moving frequently as Carl worked on the Minuteman missile project with Boeing.
Peggy considered living in eleven different towns an adventure, and each time she packed up and moved the family’s belongings in a station wagon and utility trailer, she enjoyed the process. In 1971, the family returned to Bellevue for the final time. Peggy became a teacher at the now-defunct Metropolitan Business College, and enjoyed bringing home foreign exchange students to Thanksgiving dinners.
She retired in the 1980s, and after Carl retired from Boeing in 1987, they sold their home in Bellevue and moved to Buckley, where they lived until her death. Before she became incapacitated with Parkinson’s Disease, Carl and Peggy enjoyed a life filled with travel. They traveled to 51 countries and all 50 states.
They took more than a dozen cruises. Peggy enjoyed volunteering at the Buckley Senior Center, and in her younger days she was an avid bridge player and square dancer. Peggy is survived by her husband of 68 years; her sisters Carol (Ben) Kircher and Helen (Harold) Faust; and her three daughters, Christina (Charles Szurszewski) Meserve, Dianne (James Anderson) Meserve and Marlene (William) Jenkins.
She is also survived by seven grandchildren: Kathryn and Erik Anderson, Josh (Laura) Szurszewski, Kevin Meserve, Abigail and Cameron Haslam and Brooke Jenkins. She was preceded in death by her parents, her older sister Kay Westlake, and her son-in-law, Gary Haslam. A memorial service will be held on August 1st at Community Presbyterian Church in Buckley at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations to the Buckley Senior Center.
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