Peggy Converse

Peggy Converse

April 05, 1933 – April 06, 2011

Oskaloosa, Iowa

Visitation: will begin at 11:00 a.m., Friday morning, April 08, 2011 at Garland-Van Arkel-Langkamp Funeral Chapel. The family will be at the funeral chapel from 5 – 7 p.m. to greet visitors.
Funeral Service: 10:30 a.m., Saturday morning, April 09, 2011 at First Christian Church with Reverend Andrea Brownlee officiating.
Interment: Forest Cemetery in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Peggy was surrounded by her family when she passed away Wednesday evening at Northern Mahaska Nursing and Rehab.

Peggy Jean Converse, daughter of Clair and Geneva Nimon Shifflett, was born April 5, 1933 in Webster, Iowa. She attended New Sharon High School where she played basketball and was the valedictorian of her 1950 graduating class. After graduation she went on to work in Des Moines and then moved to Oskaloosa where she worked as a bookkeeper at JC Penney. March 21, 1953, Peggy was united in marriage to Carlos Converse in Kent Chapel at Central United Methodist Church in Oskaloosa. They made their home in Oskaloosa. Peggy stayed busy with raising her three children and assisting as a bookkeeper for her husband’s company, Converse Construction, from 1955 to 1980. From 1980 to 2010, Peggy was a tax preparer with H & R Block. While her children were young she volunteered as a Cub Scout leader, a room mother, and taught Sunday school for many years at her church. Peggy’s love for basketball was life long, after high school she played with a company traveling AAU team; in the 1970s she was instrumental in starting the girl’s basketball program in Oskaloosa and in her later years, she was an avid sport’s fan and delighted in following her grandchildren’s sporting events. Peggy enjoyed so many things and was also good at them; she loved her home and kept busy with sewing, needlepoint, baking, canning, gardening and yard work. Peggy’s passion for life extended beyond her home as well, she loved getting together with friends for coffee; she served as a hospice volunteer, she was active in the Republican Party and served as an election volunteer and supervisor of the 5th ward; she assisted with many wedding and funeral lunches at her church; and submitted many pies for the Southern Iowa Fair Pie Contest.

Peggy’s family includes her son and daughter-in-law, Charles and Karen Converse of Oskaloosa and two daughters and sons-in-law: Jil and Dennis Veldhuizen of Oskaloosa and Joi and Roger Stout of New Sharon; eight grandchildren: Cole, Courtney and Conner Converse, Brook (Austin) Blackwell, and Paige (Joe) Pierson, all of Oskaloosa and Grant, Caleb and Clint Stout, all of New Sharon; one great granddaughter, Banx Blackwell; a sister-in-law, Iris Dreibelbeis of Story City, IA; a brother-in-law, Charles Whitaker of Oskaloosa and several nieces and nephews.

Besides her parents, Peggy was preceded in death by her husband Carlos on March 11, 1980 and an infant daughter, Cynda.

Memorials may be made to the Mahaska Hospital Infusion Center to be used for a new patient chair.

Source: GVL Funeral Chapel