Eulogy written by Lauren Hamre
Good morning everyone and thank you for being here today. My name is Lauren Hamre and I am Peggy Sue's eldest granddaughter, which means I was fortunate enough to get the most time with her, even though it still wasn’t enough. I am here to talk to you all about my grandma; her life, her likes, her loves; the lessons she taught us, the care she showed us, the legacy she has left. Which is a very tall order, but I am going to try my best. Peggy was born in Atchison, Kansas to James and Sue Kelley. She lived in town, went to Atchison High School, and spent her childhood playing cards and riding to school together with Nancy and Connie. After she graduated, she spent some of her time cruising around town in her brown '65 Mustang with her best friend Kak, who is still by her side over 50 years later. You might have also seen Peggy marching into Henry's to give some guys multiple pieces of her mind after they were rude to Kak once, but that's for another time. Sometimes there were special guest stars to these cruises, Ginger and Dallas included. It was one of those fateful cruises that caught my Grandpa Kenny's eye. That is when the roots of our family tree were planted. Kenny and Peggy got married, moved out to the country, and had two children who were their absolute joys - Nikki and Craig. Kenny farmed and Peggy turned their house in the country into the home of their dreams. One time Kenny was talking to his friends who joked that Peggy was lucky she didn’t have to work. Kenny made sure they all knew that raising those kids and upkeeping their home was more than a full-time job in itself. Kenny always held such respect for Peggy and how she molded the generations of our family. She always kept the house stocked with Hostess cupcakes, Pecan Swirls, Potato Stix, and Mini M&M's. And I mean ALWAYS because those were just as much a part of my sister and I's childhood as it was our mom's and Craig's. Living out in the country also came with its more interesting parts, like driving the kids into school any day they had before or after school activities - so every day with how much my mom managed to do. She never missed a thing. She was at every game, meet, event, recital, and celebration. You could always find her sitting in the stands at a soccer game or parked in solidarity with my dad's sister Carrie at the beginning and end of each cross country course. As much as she would put wear on her tires, she would NOT do the same to her shoes running to heck and back at those cross country meets. What I will say is that Goodyear should have sponsored her with how many tires she must have gone through over the years. Another thing to know about grandma's driving is that she flew. Both in the speedy way but also in the "flying the bird way", which was specially reserved for my dad the one time he pulled her over on his police motorcycle in Kansas City just to wave hello. Some of her other more memorable drives included all the ones she took to see her family in Arkansas. She loved them so dearly, and even went down to Arkansas for her and grandpa's honeymoon, which grandpa was more than happy to do because he loved nothing more than to see her joyous smile and those beautiful baby blues, which many of us are lucky to share with her. It brings me comfort to know our family will continue to see her in each other's eyes. After the kids grew up and were out of the house, grandma went back to work to give them a higher education. One day she told grandpa she had gotten tired of driving into town for work and asked if they could buy a house in town to be closer. Grandpa of course told her he'd do anything that’d make her happy, just as he had a thousand times before and just like he would ten thousand times more. On that specific day however, that was the wrong answer. I am paraphrasing and removing some of the more colorful language grandma may have used in that moment, but she essentially said, "I thought maybe you would argue with me but I am not moving out of the country. It is so peaceful, my kids had a great place to play and grow up, and I want my grandkids to have that same opportunity". And we did. We played in the mud, we rode four-wheelers and dirt bikes, we fell off said four-wheelers and dirt bikes, got hurt, and still went back for more. Alex and my cousin would ride toy horses around the living room, horses that we did in fact find in the basement less than a week ago. She never missed anything, and she also kept EVERYTHING. Especially pictures. My grandma loved to capture every wonderful moment of her life and the life of her loved ones. I have told more people than I can count that my grandma had us grandkids trained to smile when the camera came out before we could even talk. Although that was never a tough request - it was easy to smile when we were spending time with grandma. I know many people had the same experience in the times they spent with her. She loved to go out to lunches, especially at Jerry's Again. She would go week after week to have lunch with her gal group, Nancy, Connie, Paula, Sarah, Jan, Kak, Cricket, and Kathy. The Jerry's Again staff shared that she would get different meals, but a glass of ice tea and a slice of pie were for certain. She made sure to keep our smiles going for decades. She had easter baskets, valentine's cards, and Christmas stockings ready for each of the kids and grandkids, even well into our 20s and beyond, and I mean wayyyy beyond. She welcomed my dad and my Aunt Jessie into our family with open arms and always treated them as her own. She had such a way of bringing everyone together. Every one of us is here because of her. Some of us, like me, a bit more literally than others. She touched the lives and hearts of so many people in the 7 and a half decades she spent on earth. She is something different and special to each of us. To some she is a classmate, to others she is a cousin, to many she is friend. She is a mom to Nikki and Craig, a grandma to me, my siblings, and my cousin, a GG to Colt Kenneth, and to my grandpa, she is his everything. A little bit of all of us went with her when she left. The spaces those pieces left inside of us may be nostalgic, painful, big or small. Over time, we will continue to love one another as she would. We will continue to show up for those we love, no matter the distance or reason, just as she would. Those spaces left inside of us will begin to fill with new memories with those my grandma loved and those who love her, just as she would want us to do. So take lots of photos of everything, enjoy a hostess cupcake in her memory, and continue to make happy memories together, knowing she will be on our minds and will always be our Peg O' My Heart.