Margaret Hall

DERBY -- Margaret Mary "Peg" Hall died Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006, at Select Specialty Hospital in Evansville following complications from pancreatic surgery. She was 68. She was born Jan. 15, 1938, in Chicago, and grew up in Remington, Ind., where she worked in her family's restaurant, ran faster than many boys and became valedictorian of her class. At Indiana University in Bloomington, she met Joe Hall of Derby and abandoned her studies for marriage and motherhood. Since their marriage 48 years ago, the couple have raised six children -- Andy, Dan, Jill (Doering), Dave, Nancy and John -- and have become grandparents to five -- Molly, Monica, Jessica and Nicole Hall, and Logan Radcliffe. Two decades after leaving IU, Mrs. Hall returned to campus and finished her degree in home economics -- a field in which, after raising half a dozen children, she'd become expert. Journalism became her next passion. In the 1970s, '80s and '90s, she turned out dozens of news reports, features, photographs and humorous Erma Bombeck-style columns about rural family life for the Perry County News and its precedessor publications. She won several awards from the Hoosier State Press Association. Residents often stopped her in store aisles to laugh about her columns, which explored such mysteries as how she won a first-place trophy without finishing a race, and why socks always disappear in the clothes dryer. "My theory is that every home contains sort of a Bermuda Triangle where lost socks, tools and other items that you just put down for a minute are swallowed up," she wrote in 1988. Mrs. Hall loved family, friends, singalongs, stylish hats, long "fellowshipping" talks late into the night, tulips and roses, baking bread, creating birthday cakes shaped like her children's heroes, painting, playing softball on the field in front of her home, making pine holiday wreaths with plaid bows, and cheering for IU football and basketball. Days before her surgery, she played touch football with a horde of people at an annual tailgate party where, as usual, neither the Hoosiers' loss, nor wind, nor rain, diminished her fun. An activist in school affairs while she had children at Perry Central, she continued to remain involved as a grandparent, volunteering for the school's Community Readers program to hold readalongs for children. She also served as a Cub Scout denmother and PTA president. Mrs. Hall is survived by her husband, Joe, their six children and five grandchildren, and five of her six siblings -- Ruth Lamie, Shirley Clark; and George, John and Frank Anstett. She was preceded in death by her parents, George and Blanche (Bunneau) Anstett, and her brother Robert Anstett. Visitation will be held 1 to 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 4, and 9 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5, at Huber Funeral Home in Tell City. The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Leopold, with the Rev. Thomas Richstatter and the Rev. Sean Hoppe officiating. Burial will be at Derby Cemetery and a meal will be served at the Derby Tavern. A memorial is being established to support some of her favorite local causes. Contributions may be sent to the Peg Hall Memorial Fund, c/o First State Bank. "What a gift I've been given," Mrs. Hall said one day in October as she remained in the intensive care unit at Indiana University in Indianapolis, where the pancreatic surgery was performed. She marveled that she'll never be able to repay her family, friends, doctors and nurses for the kindness and love that they extended to her. All we can add, Peg, Mom, Gamma, Grandma, is an echo: "What a gift we've been given!"