Margaret J. "Peggy" Gadbow

MISSOULA – Peggy Gadbow, 88, died peacefully and surrounded by family on Friday, March 8, 2013, at her Target Range home, just a short stroll from her birthplace.

The sixth of seven siblings, she was born Sept. 1, 1924, at the home of her parents, Harry D. and Jesse Mae (Johnson) Maclay, who then lived across the street from the old Target Range School on South Avenue.

When she was 6 years old, Peggy's family moved to their longtime residence at the corner of South Avenue and Reserve Street, where her dad farmed and operated Maclay Market, a grocery store, butcher shop and gas station.

From the time she was 7, Peggy worked and played on the farm, and delivered groceries from the market to local families, including the officers' quarters at nearby Fort Missoula.

She attended Missoula grade schools and graduated from Missoula County High School, where she sold ads and wrote for the school newspaper. Later, she earned bachelor's degrees in psychology and education and an impressive number of graduate credits in education and library science at the University of Montana.

At the start of World War II, Peggy worked for 90 cents an hour at the Kok-saghyz Plantation in Target Range, picking Russian dandelions used in a government program to produce rubber for tires in the war.

In 1943, after one year of college at UM, Peggy married her high school sweetheart Dave Stelling of Missoula, who was training in Alabama as a pilot for the U.S. Army Air Force. He was killed in 1945, when his P-51 Mustang fighter was shot down over Tokyo Bay.

During the war years, Peggy moved to Bellflower, Calif., where she worked for Douglas Aircraft, first as a filing clerk, and later selling war bonds to fellow employees, and as a hostess for Hollywood celebrities visiting the plant. At that time, she also worked in California as a typist for Western Pipe and Steel, a shipbuilding company.

Peggy returned to Missoula after the war and resumed her studies at UM, where she met Vincent L. Gadbow of Butte, her tutor in the English Department. They married in 1947 and had three children – Daryl, Harry and Laurie.

After they divorced, Peggy raised her children as a single mom, while finishing her undergraduate degrees and earning her Montana teaching certificate in 1960. At the same time, she was employed for three years as a consultant for the Montana State Library, in addition to working toward a master's degree in library science at UM.

Mom frequently drove to visit libraries in rural communities all across the state in those years, often taking her three young children along for the ride. We all certainly learned a lot about the geography of Montana and developed a love of reading from her then.

Before she was able to complete her master's degree, Peggy was hired in 1961 as the first supervisor of library/media services for all Missoula's public elementary schools. Her first order of business in that position was to establish libraries at each of the district's schools for the first time.

To accomplish that goal, Peggy recruited, trained and directed a small army of volunteers to help process books for distribution to the schools, including fitting plastic covers and cataloging each volume. The volunteers also assisted the new school librarians hired by Peggy and provided guidance to students. Many of those volunteers ended up as her lifetime friends.

During her career, Peggy was active in local, state and national professional associations, serving on various committees and advisory boards. She was executive director of National Library Week in Montana, and was named administrator of the year by the Montana Library Association in 1977.

In 1965, Peggy was a founder and coordinator of the initial Project Head Start program in Missoula, an eight-week summer preschool session that introduced 115

5-year-olds to reading.

She was honored several times by the American Library Association and the American Association of School Librarians in their annual national awards for outstanding library programs in elementary schools.

Peggy retired in 1985, but in 2000 was chosen to represent Montana among the American Library Association's list honoring "extraordinary librarians of the 20th century."

Peggy was extremely proud of her Maclay and Johnson (of Missoula's famed Johnson Flying Service) family roots. She was a third-generation descendent of the three Maclay brothers from Pennsylvania who homesteaded in the Missoula and Bitterroot valleys in the 1800s. In 1992, she organized a national reunion of the Maclay clan in Missoula, which drew hundreds of family members from around the United States.

After her retirement from the school system, she loved family gatherings and spending time at her lovely Target Range home. As was her fervent wish, she was able to remain in her home the rest of her life.

Peggy is survived by her three children, Daryl (Kate) Gadbow, and Laurie (Tim) Hunt of Missoula, and Harry (Patti Henry) Gadbow of Butte; her four grandchildren, Zach (Christina Melander) Dundas, and Grady Gadbow of Portland, Ore., Chad (Courtney Ellis) Dundas, and Ali (Jason McMackin) Gadbow of Missoula; and her two great-grandchildren, Cash Dundas of Portland, Ore., and Beatrice Dundas of Missoula.

In addition, she is survived by a host of nieces and nephews, who all affectionately called her "Aunt P," as well as many dear friends, including Millie Taylor of Hamilton, Mary and Bob Ellis, Char Frojen, Geneva, Van, and Bobby Van Horne, Jane Hannich and the Stelling family of Missoula; and her cousin Betty Maclay Glodt-Kenna of Wenatchee, Wash.

She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, Jack (died at age 7), William (baby), David (age 2), Grant and Glenn Maclay; sister Kathryn Burgess, and first husband Dave Stelling.

The family would like to thank Peggy's wonderful caregivers: Anne, Bev, Dawn, Nikki, Laina and Marti; as well as a team of compassionate professionals representing Hospice of Missoula, Alison Forney-Gorman, M.D.; Cindy Peters, R.N.; Terry Steckly, R.N.; Linda Emmens, C.N.A.; Mary Place-Allyn, M.S.W., and Anita Vatshell, R.N.; and also her treasured neighbors Irma, Gail and Carol.

As Peggy wished, no funeral services are planned. She wanted us to have a picnic later this summer for her friends and relatives to remember her.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Hospice of Missoula, 800 Kensington, Suite 204, Missoula, MT, 59801.

Read Margaret Gadbow's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.