A celebration-of-life memorial service is planned this Saturday (May 30th) for Peggy McCormack, who you might have known as a preschool teacher, or a church organist – just two of the many aspects of her life, detailed by her family in this remembrance:

Margaret Anne (“Peggy”) Kemp McCormack, 84, passed away peacefully at home on April 11, 2015. Peggy was the elder of two girls born to Charles William & Irene Carrick Kemp. Her early years were spent in both Spirit Lake, ID, and in Clarkston, and her adolescence on the west coast in Washington. After college graduation, she married Clarence (“Larry”) McCormack in 1952 and spent a happy life with him in West Seattle, where he taught science at Madison Junior High School and ultimately predeceased her in 2007.

Peggy was a gifted musician. She and her sister were singing on their grandfather’s radio show in Lewiston, Idaho, by the time they were not quite two and three years old. At that age, they had no idea that they were “performing”, but soon they had mastered a number of instruments, and continued to perform throughout their school years whenever and wherever they were asked. Peggy played piano, French horn and clarinet, but usually accompanied her sister, a flautist. Both girls entered and won contests regularly throughout the Pacific Northwest. They came from a very musical family, and Peggy always shrugged and said, ‘That’s just how it was. We didn’t think anything about it.’

However, by the time she went to college, Peggy was studying the organ. She had played her first church service at the age of 8 when her mother, the regular church pianist, was too ill to get to church, and apparently Peggy had a grand time that day. By the time she graduated from college, she was playing concerts or recitals almost every week. As soon as she and Larry settled in Seattle, she began playing for a number of different churches.

When her daughter was about 5 years old, Peggy agreed to be the organist at Tibbetts Methodist Church, where she played for the grand opening of the new sanctuary and then continued as the organist for around twenty years. Subsequently, she played both organ and piano for Highland Park United Methodist Church, and later for Highline UMC. Music and playing in praise of the Lord’s creation and His love were an integral part of who she was. Any time she was stressed, distressed, ill, or otherwise indisposed, her first need was to play music, and her family always knew she was on the road to recovery as soon as she sat down at the piano.

One of her other dear joys in music was directing a handbell choir that flourished for something between 25 and 30 years. Eventually they became known as the “Highlanders” and traveled quite a bit to perform and attend workshops, as well as frequent performances in their home church (Highland Park UMC) both for services and high holidays.

Peg also always sought both to learn new things and to teach others in ways that were creative, experiential, and personally meaningful to them. She always described herself as having been born with what she called an intense “need to know” (which included almost everything in very diverse areas of study and skill). This resulted in numerous certifications and awards, as well as degrees from Centralia College and Washington State (WSC) and a master’s degree from the University of Washington. (However, if she were to read this life summary, Peggy would hasten to add that she was ALWAYS a Washington State Cougar at heart!)

She had some interesting niches of study and skill ~ for example, she chose to learn parliamentary law, and became a National Registered Parliamentarian. The knowledge and skills required for this certification are meticulous, demanding, and unforgiving. Being Peggy, she passed on her first attempt, but she always maintained that the test she had to write to earn those credentials was harder than any test she took in her master’s program.

Another niche was her decades of research into the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in the Pacific Northwest. She ultimately acquired a reputation as the expert in this area of history. Her grandfather had been a Methodist minister and, as he was dear to her, his personal history was the impetus for years and years of ardent inquiry and study in Washington, Oregon, Montana, and beyond.

Professionally, Peggy spent most of her career as an instructor in Early Childhood Education and working with the Parent Cooperative Preschools in West Seattle and beyond. She started at Seattle Central Community College Campus, and moved to the South Seattle campus when it opened, along with only two other members of the Home & Family Life Department from the Central Campus. She taught several topics in Early Childhood Education, and also always worked with the preschools as a parent and adult educator, supporting each preschool from “behind the scenes”. Working with students, children, teachers, parents and families was a great joy to her throughout her career. One of her saddened friends recently told Peg’s daughter that, “Hundreds of kids in West Seattle were the beneficiaries of Peggy’s teaching.”

As a church historian, she became a member of the General United Methodist Church Historical Society and both the Pacific Northwest and the Conference General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church. She loved what she was doing: from research to sharing to learning and then teaching. She and her daughter faithfully attended national conventions year after year while she was able to travel.

She was a Camp Fire leader when her daughter was young; spent decades researching family genealogy; and always, she was a musician. She and a dear friend directed several musicals for children telling biblical stories during a number of different years, and on behalf of Camp Fire, they also found time to direct Christmas caroling at Southcenter Mall for many years.

Before retirement, Peg was presented with a Lifelong Learning Award by the Seattle Community College District. This award was bestowed with the idea that she could go “anywhere in the world she chose” to “study any topic she could imagine”, and Peggy was thrilled. She promptly arranged to go to Drew University in New Jersey where she was able to continue research into one of her “passions” already mentioned here: the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the Pacific Northwest. When the “locals” in New Jersey heard that she could have gone anywhere in the world, they were rather loudly horrified, and several people assured her that she had come to “the armpit of the world.” However, Peggy had a great time, and came home with several more boxes of research to be added to the archive of material on this topic that she had already accumulated.

Peg continued to pursue multiple diverse areas of study and skill with humor and delight for as long as she was able, and always, whatever she did was in service to her Lord. After a series of mishaps, fractures, and surgeries, for the past two and a half years she was mostly at home with her daughter, where her health steadily declined as she gradually faded away due to the ravages of dementia co-occurring with a number of other health concerns.

Peg is survived by her daughter, Katharine E. McCormack of Seattle; son, Bruce A. McCormack (Julie) of Seattle; niece, Irene Arnold Kozumplik (Bob) of Frederic, Wisconsin; nephew, D. Scott Arnold of Frederic, Wisconsin; and numerous extended family members. She is preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, her sister Patricia Irene Kemp Sevey, and niece Julie Anne Arnold. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Highline United Methodist Church Music Department or to the PNW Conference of the United Methodist Church (Archives & History), PO Box 13650; Des Moines, WA 98198.

A MEMORIAL CELEBRATION OF LIFE WILL BE HELD ON SATURDAY, MAY 30th, at 1:00 P.M. at Highline United Methodist Church at 13015 1st Ave S. in Burien; (206) 241-5520.

(WSB publishes West Seattle obituaries by request, free of charge. Please e-mail the text, and a photo if available, to editor@westseattleblog.com)