What an amazing woman who overcame a hearing loss to create a life of adventure and service.
Margaret Anne “Peggy” Rogers died July 1, 2024, at age 89. You may read her obituary here, and this summary is pulled from that tribute.
Peggy grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but spent her childhood summers at the home of grandparents, William and Nellie Padget, in Lenior City, Tennessee, where Dr. Padget was the general practitioner for Loudon County. Peggy remembered her grandparents hosting Episcopal services every Sunday in their home before funds were raised to build The Episcopal Church of The Resurrection.
Although she lived in many places, most recently in Chattanooga, she chose her childhood happy place for her final resting place. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 13, 2024, at The Episcopal Church of The Resurrection, 917 Pond Road, Loudon, Tennessee. Burial will immediately follow at Lenoir City Cemetery. Peggy will be buried at the Padget monument next to her grandparents, parents and others.
Peggy was diagnosed with hearing loss at an early age. She worked throughout her life to overcome the challenge and assist others with hearing loss after family friend Bishop John Vander Horst, the former Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, encouraged her to address the challenge and rise above it.
She obtained a bachelor’s degree from Sweet Briar College in 1956 and a master’s in journalism from the University of Iowa in 1964. There she studied with Kurt Vonnegut.
After graduating, she became the director of publicity for the University of Chattanooga (now UTC). Next, working with Methodist missionaries Dr. Charles and Maud Reynolds, she helped establish a school for deaf children in Sironcha, India; it still exists.
In 1970, she received a grant from Oxford University, United Kingdom, to work there on the personal files of C. S. Lewis, the author and Christian theologian; in the summer of 2000, she returned to Oxford to speak at a C. S. Lewis seminar.
Peggy lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for 35 years where she taught English and American literature and was a truant officer for the Philadelphia Public Schools.
Next, she did photojournalism and delivered medical supplies for Methodist Missions in India. In 1988, she met Mother Theresa as part of this work.
Other adventures: crossing the Atlantic on the QEII, a Canterbury Tales tour, and a passage to India that had an Agatha Christie feel, minus the murder.
She was a lifelong Episcopalian and a proud East Tennessean, one of the eighth generation of Rogers from Rogersville. It couldn’t have been easy to navigate this travel and these varied jobs, but Peggy Rogers managed. In fact, she did it quite well.