Marguerite J.  Pack

Marguerite "Peggy" Jenks Pack

Our beloved Mother, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother Peggy, went home to be with her Lord March 31, 2014. Finally, she is free from the debilitation of Alzheimer’s.

Peggy was born on March 5, 1923 in Easthampton, Mass., to Raymond Mowry Jenks and Gladys Howard Jenks. She lived life with great enthusiasm. While growing up, she lived in several towns including Easthampton, Westhampton, and Springfield, Mass., as well as Newport, Rhode Island.

Growing up she, along with her brother Kenneth, spent summers in Westhampton with her beloved Uncle William (Wink) on his farm, along with her grandparents Franklin and Margaret Howard. Peggy embraced all the adventures of farm life, loving all the animals, wild and domestic, cats galore, cows, sheep, dogs, horses, and the various baby wild animals her grandpa would rescue. She learned how to cook all the down home cooking typical of farm life then on a wood stove. She learned how to harvest hay, feed chickens, ride work horses, take milk to market, and collect maple sap and make syrup. She also appreciated all the forest, and wild flowers. Peggy learned to care for the baby animals, which led to her caring for people later in life.

In 1941 she graduated from Classical High School in Springfield, Mass. and went on to college at Mass. State Amherst to study Home Economics. While there she met our Dad, Boyd Pack who was studying for his Master’s Degree. The War came along and he joined up, going to England until the war ended in May 1945. He couldn’t wait to get home, and they were married July 29, 1945. In April of 1946 they began their family with the birth of their first daughter Sylvia. Graduate school followed in North Carolina before they settled in Windsor, Ct. where they built their home. Over the next nine years there were two additions to the family, a son Howard, and another daughter Janice.

In 1959 they moved to the little house on the prairie in Huron, South Dakota for two years. Mom truly missed the east, so in 1962 they returned to Ithaca, where they settled in a little house by the park for the last 52 years.

Mom was very good at the many things she did. In the house in Connecticut she became an expert at homemaking and child rearing, including purposeful discipline of us. She excelled in cooking, giving us kids the best school lunches a kid could want. She even knew carpentry and finished off a bedroom for us.

Many hours were spent gardening, freezing, and canning to keep her family fed. She was a master at sewing putting many miles on her machine. Peggy made all of the clothes for work, school, and play.

Mom held down a job evenings at the Aetna Insurance Company for many years. When she came to Ithaca, all her experience led to several jobs, the last being at Olin Library in the Dept. of Manuscripts and Archives retiring in 1989. She was an enthusiastic worker, and saw to the many details of making things work well and could be counted on to do what was expected.

She found time for looking out for the people she knew. She spent many years caring for her aging relatives, Uncle, Dad and Mother. Peggy was an avid genealogist, tracking down lots of information about the family long before the days of computers. She had time for lots of other hobbies too, including gardening, both inside and out. Orchids became a real passion and she had a house full of them. Peggy’s outdoor gardens were lush and colorful. She enjoyed entertaining family on holidays, cooking the best dinners anywhere! Along with our Dad, she traveled to as many Civil War sites as they could. They also ventured to Europe, Italy, England, Wales and Ireland, where her ancestors came from, as well as visiting the west, Utah, California, and the Canadian Rockies. She made memories of all these things with her trusty camera, recording their travels and the progression of all our lives through her photos. She kept Kodak in business, recording ours.

Mom and Dad also participated in many church activities at Christ Chapel in Ithaca, making many friends there over the years. One of their best friends was Pastor Burton Huth and his wife Florence, who grew to be very close over the years. He faithfully visited her every week while she resided at Cayuga Ridge Nursing Home.

As a family, we would like to thank Joe and Robin Soto of Redmoon for caring for Peggy while she enjoyed her home and the staff at Cayuga Ridge for their care of Mom over the time she was there.

In addition to her husband A. Boyd Pack, Peggy was preceded in death by her Uncle Wink; father and mother, Raymond and Gladys Jenks; and brother and sister-in-law Kenneth and Lillian Jenks of San Antonio, TX.

She is survived by three children, Sylvia Free, Howard Pack, and Janice Pack. She also leaves a granddaughter Katherine; grandson Andrew and his wife Stephanie; great granddaughter, Allie Marguerite in Waynesville, Missouri; three nieces, Elizabeth, Cynthia, and Jennifer and families in Texas; a nephew Richard (Nenita) in Puerto Rico; and several cousins in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Peggy, our mom, left a large legacy, and memories that will not be forgotten. She epitomized a Proverbs 31 woman, who looked after the ways of her household, and looked out for others too. We as her family and friends have much to be grateful for, having known her and been loved by her in so many ways.

She gave life all she could give and more. Job well done!!

The family will be present to receive friends from 11:30 to 12:30pm on Saturday, April, 5, 2014 at Christ Chapel, 160 Graham Road, Ithaca. A Funeral Service will immediately follow at the church at 12:30pm officiated by Pastor Steven Felker.

The family asks those who wish to make a contribution in Peggy’s memory to kindly consider Christ Chapel, 160 Graham Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 or to an SPCA of your choice.