FITCHBURG - Peggy K. Barrett passed away peacefully, under the loving vigil of her daughter, on Saturday, November 29, 2025, at Sylvan Crossings at Fitchburg after spending most of her retirement years in Madison.

Peggy put the ‘oppositional’ in defiance. Born and raised on a subsistence farm in southern Oklahoma, in the depths of the Dustbowl and Depression on hardscrabble land her mother was allotted as a Chickasaw Indian. Peggy overcame it all and did things her way her entire life. Her beloved hospice nurse declared that she re-wrote the book on dying. It turns out, she re-wrote a bunch of other books on life as well!

She didn’t much like talking about the early years on the farm. Her first memories were of privation and manual drudgery. She couldn’t run away from it fast enough. Going to church or town in her early years involved her father hitching up the team of horses, loading the family in the wagon and trundling down “the lane”-alternately a muddy rut or a mini-dustbowl-to Seeley Chapel or the seven rough miles to Tishomingo, Okla.

Difficult though those early years were, she was always proud of her Chickasaw heritage. Her mother, a graduate of the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, Oklahoma was a source of great inspiration and determination for her. Her father, a World War I veteran, was a graduate of the Chickasaw Manual Training School for Boys (Harley Institute) in Tishomingo, Okla. An appreciation for higher education and the finer things in life that her mother learned at Chilocco was passed down to Peggy. Her mother’s decision to sell the farm and move to better educational opportunities in Norman, Okla., during the war years was a pivotal moment in Peggy’s life. Peggy grabbed the brass ring, soaked in all of the cultural offerings of a state flagship university town, earning her bachelor’s degree in history. Music was a family touchstone-classical, opera, Rogers & Hammerstein musicals, and most especially, Methodist church hymns.

Immediately after college she left for Washington, D.C. to work as a secretary for the Department of the Navy at the Pentagon. Manually powering her unpowered Underwood typewriter at a blazing 142 words-per-minute-and NO mistakes-she was prized in the secretarial pool. D.C. was where she met and fell in love with a dashing young career Army officer, Donald Barrett.

Though the marriage ended in divorce, those 27 years together were good years, traveling the world as her husband transferred every three years from base to base from Hawai’i to Germany to Kansas to Belgium and many places between. Wherever the family was, she made it a home. She was determined that her kids would have the things and experiences poverty deprived her of in her growing up years. Giving her kids the experience of living in Europe was the ultimate achievement for her. (She didn’t count on those world travels resulting in a different political outlook in her oldest though!)

She dedicated herself to creating a loving and lively home. No matter where Army wife life took her, hers was the home that her kids’ friends loved to go to for the fun spirit in the home. To the horrification of neighborhood moms, she delighted in indulging any kid with all the cookies or candy or pop they wanted! Like her mother before her, she was the rocket fuel behind her kids’ endeavors and interests. Den mother. Brownie Mom. Every. Single. Parent. Teacher. Conference. And the most wonderful chocolate chip cookies on earth! (Here’s where she would interject: Take THAT, Hillary!). And her world-famous southern fried chicken!

She loved to tell anyone and everyone who wasn’t her kid that her kids were her pride and joy. Her kids knew this truth, of course. But she couldn’t let on lest she lose her power position!

Once the kids cleared middle school, Peggy returned to her career calling as a secretary. Though she was a secretary for generals, she abhorred the term Executive Secretary. It was a solidarity thing. A secretary is a secretary is a secretary. Working and being in the mix at Fort Leavenworth’s School of Advanced Military Studies (where the military’s rising brainiacs produced cutting-edge military research), was a source of great pride for her. Upon retirement, senior officers awarded her the highest honors for civilian service.

In 2003, she moved to Madison, Wis., to be closer to her son and favorite daughter-in-law. She thrived in the walkable, neighborly environs of the Atwood and Marquette neighborhoods, taking the bus to her favorite shopping destinations and enjoying the company of her new neighbors. She became known in the neighborhood for the shopping cart she pulled along on her way to her beloved Jenifer Street Market. Neighbors kept a sharp eye out for her especially during her later years of independence. Twice she took a tumble on the sidewalk, and twice neighbors were right there to provide assistance. She so appreciated this community.

Peggy escaped many Wisconsin winters to stay with her daughter and favorite son-in-law in California. On her solo walks she ended up befriending much of the neighborhood as was her way. People were struck by her wit (sharp though it was), compassion and, of course, those cookies!

Her siblings and nieces were an abiding source of inspiration and strength for her. There was the family bond, of course, but Oklahoma Sooner football was the strong force that united them above all.

Peggy relished her lifetime family friendships as well. The Heil Family of St. Louis. The Gregories of Leavenworth. The Karps, of various Army posts-from Hawai’i to Germany. These and others were the essentials of deep life meaning for her.

Peggy wanted her epitaph to read: She had to have one of everything! She was an avid collector of tchotchke and finery from every place she lived and beyond. So dedicated was she to shopping that she saved every shopping bag that once held a treasure (Swarovski! Wedgewood! WMF! Tapa cloths!) from her life and travels in Europe and Hawai’i.

She liked to tell people she moved 31 times in her life. Her last chapter was Sylvan Crossings Assisted Living in Fitchburg. The loving care she received there was phenomenal. Sylvan’s staff provided the utmost in dignified care in Peggy’s final year on this earth. Proper personal presentation was of the utmost importance in Peggy’s life. They got it. There was never a day when her make-up wasn’t on and done up right, her nails polished, hair neatly brushed. Peggy and her family so appreciate the hard work with a personal touch they brought to this vocation. Nurse Brian and the SSM hospice team were wonderful, engaging and skillfully kept her comfortable in her last days and hours.

Peggy is survived by her children, Michael (Pamela) Barrett and Tracy (Joseph) Wallace; her brother, Charles (Karen) Kemp; nieces, Heather Kemp and Ann Courtney; grand-niece, Alyssa (Morgan) Poteet; great-grand nephews, Maximilian and Felix; and cousins, Linda Sweat, Carolee Maxwell and Robert Martin. Peggy is pre-deceased by her parents, Raymond H. Kemp and Mamie M. Kemp; brother, Joe C. Kemp; and sister, Betty R. Kemp.

Peggy so enjoyed and appreciated her many friendships, including the frequent and loving visits with Maya, Tracy D., The K’s, Barb and Bruce, and Kathy and J-O. Tess was an abiding, caring, knowledgeable and empathetic help and friend to Peggy and the family over the last few years.

A celebration of life will be held at HARMONY BAR AND GRILL, 2201 Atwood Ave., Madison, at 12 noon on Sunday, December 7, 2025.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Peggy’s name to the Goodman Community Center (goodmancenter.org).

Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson East
Funeral & Cremation Care
5203 Monona Drive
(608) 221-5420

Peggy K. Barrett

March 26, 1933 - November 29, 2025

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