LOUISVILLE - Margaret (Peggy) Keller Silhanek. It is with extreme sadness that the family report her death on July 10, 2015. Born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1933, she attended the University of Kentucky, then she became a stewardess for Delta Air Lines. Subsequently she joined Home Life of New York as a Field Underwriter becoming a member of the prestigious "Million Dollar Roundtable". Thereafter she served as the Director in New York and also London of The Kentucky Department of Economic Development working for three successive Governors (John Y. Brown, Jr., Martha Layne Collins and Wallace Wilkerson) and in this period made first contact with UPS as they were starting their airline which led to their hub in Louisville. She returned to Kentucky to be the development director for the JB Speed Art Museum. Then she became a financial development consultant for Lindsey Wilson College and other educational organizations and non-profits. Her outside interests included her becoming the first female member, then first female President and Life Trustee, of the Kentuckians of New York. She served on the Kentucky Historic Properties Commission; The New York Society of Kentucky Women; the Thomas D Clark Foundation and was a Fellow of Lindsey Wilson College. At the University of Kentucky, Peggy was member of the board of directors of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association (winner of Distinguished Alumni Service Award) and was a University of Kentucky Fellow. She was a member of the Commissioning Committee and an Honorary Plankowner for the USS Louisville SSN 724 and the USS Kentucky SSBN 737, both US Navy submarines. She volunteered with the Junior Leagues of Short Hills, New Jersey; Houston, Texas; and Louisville, Kentucky. She was a Kentucky Colonel. She is survived by her husband Frederick Silhanek, Jr., and their two children Frederick III (Sue Ann and their daughter Alexandra) and Lisa Anne; sisters Polly Keller Basta (Robert), Johnnie Keller Miller (Robert) and brother, Fred Keller (Judy). As specified in her will, Peggy was cremated and there will be no service. Memorial gifts may be directed to The Aviation Museum of Kentucky in Lexington in celebration of her love of flying: Lexington Blue Grass Airport, 4029 Airport Road, Lexington, KY 40510.

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Published by Lexington Herald-Leader from Jul. 12 to Jul. 13, 2015.

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