Obituary of Marjorie F. McDonnell

Peggy McDonnell Walsh, fixture in Peapack for over 70 years, dies at 99.
 

Marjorie Flanigan McDonnell Walsh, known as “Rosie” to family and “Peggy” to much of Peapack and Far Hills, passed away peacefully August 5th at her home in Pleasant Valley. She was 99. 
 

An avid athlete, party-giver, gardener, and matriarch, Peggy strove for excellence in every pastime on which she embarked, including a life in Peapack that kept in perfect step with the seasons.

In winter, Peggy could be regularly spotted cross country skiing through the valley’s snow-covered fields, or ferrying her children to and from the skating rink at the Essex Hunt Club. Spring found her tending to her irises and bluebells, and opening her home to Garden Conservancy tours. She spent summers at the Lake Club, breaking personal distance swimming records, and at Somerset Hills Country Club, where she won 23 tennis championships.
 

Peggy was a loyal parishioner at St. Brigid Church in Peapack, attending Mass at least once a week well into her 100th year, and worked her hardest to keep the church as simple, spare, and perfect as it was when it opened in 1936.
 

The local charities and foundations she supported over the years included the New Jersey Audubon Society, Market Street Mission, Raritan Headwaters Association, the Land Conservancy of New Jersey, Bernardsville Fire & First Aid, the Princeton Child Development Institute, and WNYC Public Radio.
 

Peggy was born October 8th, 1925, in Purchase, New York to Horace C. Flanigan and Aimee Magnus Flanigan, granddaughter of Adolphus Busch, co-founder of Anheuser-Busch. She was the youngest of four siblings. Her brothers John, Peter, and Robert all predeceased her.
 

She married T. Murray McDonnell in 1950, and moved to Peapack, where they raised 9 children. Her daughter, Mima, died in 1981. Murray died in 1991.
 

In 1995, Peggy married Philip Walsh, and the two spent 15 wonderful years together.
 

Though a devoted Catholic well-versed in the Lord’s forgiveness, Peggy had little tolerance for those who failed to meet her exacting standards. It was not uncommon for a hapless rookie lunch guest to arrive at her table expecting blanched asparagus and temperate conversation, only to  find an experience more comparable in pitch and verve to the Wimbledon finals; their hostess serving up razor sharp witticisms and anecdotes which, if ineptly returned, segued into blistering affronts. If a guest was truly a bore, Peggy was known to pick up the phone before her entree arrived, and call someone interesting.
 

Peggy’s high bar occasionally grew wearisome to her children, some of whom resented her criteria as arbitrary and inconsequential. Grandchildren received no quarter, and were firmly reprimanded for arriving underdressed to various occasions, or disrespecting her lazy Susan.

Yet each year, as the leaves fell in Peapack and the holidays commenced, anyone who set foot in Peggy’s home might grasp what her principals amounted to. Like its keeper, her residence was elegant, strong, and fine-tuned. The walls and sideboards were adorned with countless treasures, each thoughtfully chosen and perfect in their own right, but ushered to impossible heights by their place, history, and company.  At Christmas, not an ornament was out of place.
 

Here, life was family. Life was meals.
 

Each evening, the rooms and anterooms thrummed to life as generations crowded around her tables and drank in a scene ripe with magic. If one remembered to look, they would find Peggy, eyes atwinkle in the din, quietly conducting with the wholehearted dedication necessary to make this personal symphony sing as it did, and will forever in our memory. 

Peggy is survived by 8 children, 6 step-children, 27 grandchildren, 19 step-grand children, 17 great grand children, and 27 step-great grand children.
 

A memorial mass will be held Wednesday, August 27th, at 11a.m. at St. Brigid Church in Peapack.
 

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Love Your Brain foundation.