Peg McHugh

1922 - 2023

December 10, 1922 - April 2, 2023

A woman known for her many friendships and hospitality, her support of social justice issues, her faith and her singing died on April 2nd at the age of 100.

Peg was loved by her children and grandchildren and her husband, Tom, who preceded her in death after sixty-two years of marriage.

She was born Marguerite Anne Connors, the fourth child of Patrick Bernard and Evelyn Kearney Connors. Her family lived on South Broadway from the time she was two, four doors from where Peg would spend the last 66 years of her life. She graduated from Stillwater High School in 1940 where she was directed in the choir by Marion Fairchild who became a life-long friend. During World War II she and her neighbor and friend Patsy Robinson moved to Philadelphia to work in war production factories. As the war continued, she was quietly engaged to airman Louis King of Arkansas whose death she learned of when a letter was returned marked, "deceased". She spent several years in New York City where she was an occasional voice student at the Julliard School. She staffed the VIP reservation desk at Capitol Airlines office in mid-town Manhattan where she met her husband Tom McHugh, who also worked for Capitol. On May 14, 1949, she was married in St. Michael's Church of Stillwater, as were her parents and grandparents before her.

She and Tom lived in New Jersey before returning to Stillwater in 1957. After raising her children and hosting the Triangle Park neighborhood coffee klatch, she worked in the clerk of court's office for Washington County. In her retirement she enjoyed her children, grandchildren, river boating, winter days on Anna Maria Island, friends locally and those living elsewhere. She and her sisters assisted with the care of her mother and aunts and uncles during this time. She sang for many years with the choir at St. Michael's and sang at all her children's weddings. She supported the work of several Native American missions in the Dakota's and Tom's cousin's missionary work in South America.

Her family remembers her faithful attention to birthdays, hosting Christmas Eve for 61 years and annual St. Patrick's Day parties, her family trips to Ireland, France and Italy, her love of current affairs right up to the end, her faithful devotion to her husband, her collection of deceased family and friends' pictures-her saints- and her deep prayer life along with the blessings she bestowed on foreheads even as she lost her sight.

She is survived by her brother Patrick Connors and wife Elaine, her sons Christopher, Thomas, Paul, Michael; her daughters Moira, Maryanne and Eileen and foster son Charles Healey (Charlotte); daughters-in-law Cheryl, Paula, and Mary; sons-in law Don Scupien and Joe Crawford; grandchildren Patrick (Laura), Meghan (Andy Mack), Caitlin, Connor (Emilie), Molly, Ross (Karen), Annie, and Kevin McHugh, Ben, Katie and Aaron Kryzer, Jordan Scupien and Emma Lowey, along with special additional grandchildren Tania Kennedy, Tina Baumann and Jordan and Gabrielle Gullickson, great grandchildren Hazel, Stella, Charlotte, Quinn, Theo and Leo McHugh, Alice, Evelyn and James Mack and many nephews and nieces.

She is the last of the Connors girls as she was preceded in death by her sisters Patsy Poindexter, Eileen Simonet, Joanne Finger, Jean Lemmer, and Mary Swanson.

Mass of Christian Burial will be on Friday, April 14, 2023 at 11 am at the Church of St. Michael, 611 3rd St S, Stillwater, MN, with visitation an hour prior. Interment at St. Michael's Cemetery.