Margaret Mary de Goede
OBITUARY
Margaret Mary Madge was a fourth generation Californian born to Paul Madge and Blanche Joy in Los Angeles. Peggy was a proud graduate of Hyde Park Elementary School and Susan Miller Dorsey High School. Peggy also attended UCLA until the passing of her mother interrupted her studies. She grew up as a true denizen of Los Angeles with her father being a mechanic and running an auto repair shop within the shadow of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. By the age of 18 months, Peggy took the first of her frequent visits to Catalina Island in a tradition she kept up with loved ones throughout her life. During her youth she also became accustomed to lengthy family car outings and driving vacations which would serve her well later in life. It may have been on such trips that she learned and curated her catalog of catchy rejoinders such as “Bye-Bye, Buy Bonds,” “Write when you find work,” “Keep your pants on,” “Hot Dog,” and “Yoo-Hoo.” Peggy married Arthur Cornelius de Goede on June 9th, 1956 in Compton, California. Their 56 years of marriage were both full and rewarding until Art’s passing in 2012. Peggy and Art had four children: Sharon (Jerzy) Rub, Arthur (Karen), Grant (Georgeann) and Dorothy (Jim) Torrescano; and six grandchildren: Ashley (Craig), Chelsea (Mikhail), Victoria, Kathleen (Jack), James, and Emma; and two great-grandchildren: Lukas and Margaret. Peggy and her family of six continued the ritual of adventuring on many extended driving vacations and camping trips throughout the western US (all in either a station wagon or a pickup camper). Peggy’s deep resources of patience, grace, and resilience were frequently called upon when inopportune (but highly predictable and likely preventable) vehicular issues or failures would arise. Peggy’s expertise in quilting and other needlecrafts lives on with many who are still much comforted by all that she lovingly created, repaired, and gifted. Peggy was also very skilled in gardening-a joy she practiced over many years and shared with others. Although she renounced sugary treats for a long stretch of her life, she remained a constant and renowned caretaker and provider for a vast number of hummingbird generations in Southern California. Always and forever, Peggy will be known as everybody’s favorite. Whether you knew or loved her as your sibling, cousin, friend, schoolmate, neighbor, husband, in-law, aunt, mom, grammy, great-grandma, or as your willing and able co-conspirator, she was simply and genuinely the best. In her next life, Peggy will be marrying a plumber who drinks his coffee black. A celebration of Peggy’s life will be held in the San Diego area in mid-October.