Peggy Yonge

Yonge, Mary Margaret (Peggy) Shepherd Jenkins Yonge, 68 of Austin, TX, passed away peacefully on January 8, 2017, after a 6 year battle with cancer. Peggy was born in Tyler, Texas, on October 25, 1948. Her family eventually moved to Midland, Texas, where she graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in 1966, excelling as a tennis player. Her college days began at Stephens College in Missouri, but she soon transferred to the University of Texas in Austin, pledged Kappa Alpha Theta, and graduated with a degree in Home Economics in 1970. It was there that she met her first husband, Walt Jenkins, and they married in 1970. They moved to Kingwood, Texas, where they raised their two children, Melissa and Lance, and Peggy lived in Kingwood until 1993. During that time, Peggy was involved in AAUW, served as a Girl Scout leader, was a member of Kingwood United Methodist Church, taught preschool, earned a Masters Degree in Mathematics from Sam Houston State University, taught as a math teacher at Humble High School, and then worked in pharmaceutical sales for Schwarz Pharma. All the while, she never missed one of her children's sporting events and truly thrived in raising her kids, by far the greatest source of joy in her life. In 1993, Peggy moved to Austin and worked for Pharmaco as a clinical research monitor. Soon after, she met George Yonge, whom she married in 1995. Together they experienced many adventures traveling all over the world, including a nearly 2 year trip of the 'Great Circle' on their 28 foot boat The Spray, which then led them to author and make presentations on their book, The Great Circle Waterway. The Great Circle trip was over 6,000 miles and Peggy, with her mathematical skills became a world-class navigator. According to George's account, she saved their bacon three times in rough seas and fog with her cool-headed GPS programming and plotting skills. Her unwavering spirituality was formed as a young child and she relied on that faith throughout her life. Peggy thrived on relationships and loved her family and friends fiercely and made friends everywhere she went. She had an uncanny ability to always put others first in situations, always wanted to know how the person she was spending time with was doing. She found great pleasure in travel, needlepoint, reading, and was always writing thank you notes. Survivors include her loving husband of 21 years, George, her daughter Melissa and her husband Kyle Snipes of Atlanta, GA, her son Lance and his wife Cathy Jenkins of Kingwood, TX, her stepsons Christy and his wife Christine Yonge and Wes Yonge of Austin, TX, along with 10 grandchildren Megan, Molly and Mary Mason Snipes, Gaius Jenkins, Kate, Nell and Wes Yonge and Ian, Christian and Jake Yonge, sister and brother in law Becky and Rudy Hopkins of Austin, brother and sister in law Will and Barbara Shepherd of Austin, and a large extended family of nephews and cousins across the country. A memorial service will be held at Tarrytown Methodist Church on Saturday, April 8. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Open Windows Learning Center (www.openwindowsfoundation.com), an educational organization in Guatemala that provides reading material and space to children that Peggy donated many hours and service to the last years of her life.