Tributes: Neighborhood mom
As a child, Peggy Cunningham would rather wear her “tree-climbing pants” than a dress.
On the first day of “real” school, she recalled the teacher broke a ruler over her hand for carving her name onto a desk. Other memories include the time her father was struck by lightning and the cold winter evening when her father brought home a “crystal set” (radio).
Fascinated by things, people and places of the past, Cunningham memorialized her findings in articles written for Nostalgia Magazine and the book, “Pioneer Families of Moab, Newman Lake and Thompson Creek.”
Cunningham died on Aug. 14. She was 87.
Cunningham was raised at Thompson Creek north of Newman Lake. She attended grade school at Green Mountain School and high school at Otis Orchards. In her writings, Cunningham reminisced about her mother, who did the wash on scrub boards, baked bread, mended and made clothes, cut wood, carried water from the spring, tended to the garden, raised chickens, made quilts, painted and shot at hawks that circled the chicken pen.
In the foreword of “Pioneer Families” Cunningham wrote, “As you read the histories here, told by sons and daughters and others, you will see that despite the hardships and difficult times our parents and grandparents encountered, they kept on and gave us living examples of hard work, thrift, and how to get by with what they had.”
Cunningham was a good example herself and she deserved and demanded respect. “The boys stood at the table before mom sat down,” said her son Phil. She respected the area’s history and was proud to be a descendant of Oregon Trail families.
Cunningham married George in 1939 and they built a small house near Thompson Creek where they raised mink. In 1949 they moved to Otis Orchards where they built a home on Corrigan Road.
Cunningham raised four active sons and a daughter. Jim McLachlan was also raised on Corrigan Road just up the street from the Cunninghams where he spent much of his childhood. He considered it an ideal childhood, almost “Leave it to Beaverish.” Cunningham was his “second mom” who filled his days with “play time, great snacks, great toys and activities that kids today would envy.”
“Peggy was the original stay-at-home mom. … They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I think we kind of had a village in our neighborhood. Peggy was at the center of her family’s lives, and I was fortunate to be a part of it, too,” McLachlan recalled, “Peggy was the consummate mother who, along with her husband, George, raised five children the right way and who was an integral and positive life in our small community.”
After raising her children, Cunningham began collecting dolls and antiques which she sold for years at Custer’s Antique and Collectible shows and the Ford V8 Swap Meet. She was involved with the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum, Valley Library, Newman Lake Ladies Aid Society, the Inland Empire Doll Collectors Club, the Otis Orchards High School Reunion Committee and the Genealogy Society.
Cunningham was so interested in history that she began collecting photos and stories which she kept in volumes. In the early 1970s, Cunningham sold most of her doll collection and bought a computer on which she began to write and store data. She became a published writer and wrote “Pioneer Families.”
When Cunningham was 5, she attended school with her older sister, Lois. She thought she was in the first grade until the teacher told her she was “only a visitor.” Cunningham wrote in an article for Nostalgia Magazine, “…Arrangements were made with the school board so I could be company for Lois as all the other students were boys. Then she (her mother) explained, ‘You were more aggressive than your sister, also a very good kicker.’ “
As an adult, Cunningham was always the lady, in a dress with pearls.
Her written memories will remain for her children and grandchildren to remember and add to if they so desire.