Margaret McCarthy
Margaret McCarthy
Margaret McCarthy
Margaret McCarthy
Margaret McCarthy
Margaret McCarthy

Obituary of Margaret Rose McCarthy

Margaret Rose “Peg” McCarthy, 81, passed away on April 20, 2023, in Olympia, Washington. Peg was born on November 14, 1941, to Stella Annabelle (Leverson) and Paul Francis McGuire in Arlington, Virginia. The family moved to the Chicago area, where Peg grew up the oldest of five. She went to college for a year but fell in love and married Richard Souders the following summer. They had two girls, Kim and Sherry, and lived in Phoenix, Arizona. Richard died in a car accident and Peg and the girls moved back to Illinois. 

 

Peg met Bill McCarthy at Butch McGuire’s in Chicago, a bar renowned for sparking thousands of marriages. They married in 1964 and had two more kids, Lane and Kelly, and built a house in Barrington Hills, Illinois. Peg was a wonderful, patient, loving mother, wife, and homemaker. She kept the house, kids, dogs, and Bill running smoothly. In 1975, they moved to Southern California, where she was very happy to be away from the cold and snow of Midwest winters. 

 

Once the kids were launched, Peg honed her tennis skills, eventually becoming champion at her tennis club. She loved gardening, hiking, kayaking, and traveling. She traveled to New Zealand, Norway (her maternal homeland), Ireland, and many places in the states with Bill, either on business or in their RV, visiting their kids, grandkids, friends and other relatives.

 

Peg also loved golden retrievers and was a great dog mom. She and Bill had a series of male goldens, most of them called Mac. After Bill died, she got a female, Miley, who was her loving, comforting companion as Alzheimer’s gradually robbed her of her faculties. When Miley died, Peg moved from the home and friends she loved in Somis, California, to Olympia, where her daughters loved and cared for her through the end of her life. 

 

Peg was predeceased by her parents, Annabelle and Paul McGuire; brother, Thomas McGuire; sisters, Sherry McGuire and Patty McGuire Kilkenny; husbands, Bill McCarthy and Richard Souders; and her daughter, Sherry McCarthy Small. Peg is survived by her sister, Kathleen Noel McGuire-Bouwman; daughters, Kim Kelley and Kelly Dalsey; son, Lane McCarthy; and grandchildren, Elizabeth, Danny, and David Small, Tyler and Riley McCarthy, and Joey Dalsey.

 

The family will celebrate Peg’s life privately. Please celebrate her life in whatever way makes sense to you, or consider a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association. 

 

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