PEGGY LOVE

NEWCOMER TO HAMILTON, ONLY 94, WANTS TO BE INVOLVED

from The Hamilton Herald-News

9 April, 1981

Mrs. R. C. APeggy@ Love, age 94, moved from Denton to Hurley Nursing Home in Hamilton last week and bids well to be the most active resident of the home despite her age.

She checked in at Hurley=s then lost no time in joining the Hamilton County Retired Teachers Association and attending their monthly meeting. She was already inquiring about the Hamilton chapter of American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP).

She was active in all these programs at Denton, plus many community improvement programs.

She qualifies to join the retired teachers because she taught in public schools for 48 years before retiring in 1957. She taught 35 years at Roanoke after serving in other schools; at a Aranch school at the end of the railroad in West Texas,@ in DeSota, Dallas, Greenville, and Emory.

Mrs. Love moved to Denton in 1963, six years after ending her public school teaching career in Roanoke. In Denton she taught one day a week at the Denton State School for Retarded Children. The past two years she taught pre-schoolers in a Denton Presbyterian school. That last job was a volunteer. It bought her no pay but it did bring her pualdits in the news bulletin of the Denton RSVP of which she was a member. She was the featured volunteer in the bulletin recently.

When a reporter approached Mrs. Love for an interview for the article in the bulletin, she modestly commented, AI have not done anything spectacular to write about.@ Even so, the writer found plenty to write about Mrs. Love. The following is an excerpt:

ADuring her married life, Peggy lived on a farm in Roanoke. She became an RSVP volunteer in 1974 when the program was new, and she served at Flow Hospital, Denton Nursing Center, and the Community Food Center. When she moved to Fairhaven in 1977, she became active in both the RSVP cancer dressing group and the RSVP mailing groups which worked there.

Peggy=s personal philosophy exemplifies the RSVP. >Common sense is worth more than medicine sometimes.= she said with a twinkle in her eye.

>She believes that senior citizens must stay as active as they can, because when you just quit, you=re gone.= Since she likes fresh salads, she likes to grow her own green vegetables, and since she wants to be useful, she volunteers for RSVP. >Heavenly days, we=re supposed to be involved as long as we=re able, aren=t we?=

Being involved is a concept that has ruled Mrs. Love=s life. The last two years in Denton she has completed two college courses, one in aging and one in nutrition. Obviously she intends to remain involved after moving to Hamilton. That=s why she joined the RTA and inquired about the AARP and RSVP.

She may be new to many Hamiltonians but they are not new to her. She is already inquiring about the people by their names. She knows about them because she ready about them in The Herald-News. Her son Rodney Love, a retired teacher himself, has been sending the Hamilton paper to her for many years.@

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Idelle Peggy York, daughter of A. P. and Martha Hargrove York was born 28 December, 1886, in Athens, AL. She died 18 September, 1985, in Hamilton at the age of 98 and was interred in the Mesquite City Cemetery.