Margaret R. Keenan

A service to celebrate the life of Margaret Porter Keenan, Ph.D., will be held at 1:30 PM on Friday, January 16, 2015 in the Koenig Chapel at Ridgecrest Village in Davenport. The family will greet friends from 1:00 p.m. until service time at the chapel. Burial and private graveside services were held at the Rock Island Arsenal National Cemetery. Cunnick-Collins Mortuary and Cremation Service is assisting the family with arrangements. On Saturday, January 11, 2015, Margaret Ruth Keenan, Ph.D., known to friends as Peg, to colleagues as Margaret, and to students as Dr. Keenan, passed away at Ridgecrest Village in Davenport where she lived among life-long friends for the last several years. She was 91. Peg was born in Davenport, IA on February 26, 1923, the eldest of four children, to Warren L. and Naomi (Earhart) Porter. She grew up in East Davenport, and with the exception of the war years, she lived most of her life within a few blocks of where she was born. She lived an idyllic childhood with her parents and siblings, all of whom predeceased her -- sisters Mary Ellen and Sara Jo and brother Jim. As a young woman, she was a terrific golfer and tennis player and an indifferent trombonist. She attended Pierce Elementary and Sudlow Junior High and graduated from Davenport High, in 1941. She spent so much time in the principal's office at Davenport High that the principal's secretary introduced Peg to her future husband, Corwin (Culver) Keenan, to whom she was married for 57 wonderful years. She went to Iowa State University where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi. Culver went to the University of Iowa, but in 1941 he was drafted into the Army Air Corps. He proposed and they got married before he shipped out for what was to be 44 months of separation. When Culver returned from service in the Pacific, they moved to Iowa City, so he could finish his degree. They moved into a quonset hut, rented a used piano -- for parties -- and welcomed Sue, the first of their five children, into the world. They returned to Davenport, where Sue was followed by Jim, Betsy, Barb, and Martha, who traced their mother's footsteps at McKinley, rather than Pierce, then Sudlow, and Davenport Central, where some also spent more time than desired in the principal's office. Led by Peg and Culver, the life of the family was full of friends, church, school activities, and epic family camping, canoeing, biking and skiing vacations, in a variety of crowded station wagons. When Peg's children were essentially self-sufficient, she began commuting to the University of Iowa to work on a master's and then a doctoral degree, which she earned in May 1980, in Rhetoric, a subject that surprised no one as her field of expertise. She taught briefly at the University of Iowa, then joined the faculty at Blackhawk College, from which she retired in 1992. While still teaching, she and Culver spent summers traveling the world. They made 10 trips to England, Europe, and Russia, before buying the first of a string of monstrous motorhomes, in which they would embark on three- and four-month trips to places ranging from Martha's Vineyard, MA, to Valdez, AK, and, in which they spent several winter months a year in Tucson. They were the best of friends and often forgot to tell their children where they were going or when they might return, because they often weren't sure themselves. They liked to meander. Culver died too early, in 2000, and is buried near the Arsenal bike path they so loved.Peg was a life-long member and a long-time high school Sunday school teacher at the First Presbyterian Church in Davenport; she was a 70-year member of PEO-IB, and a long-time member of several book clubs, service clubs, and other philanthropic organizations. She was a board member of what was then the Tri-City Symphony, and in the 1960s, she was a radio talk show host on WSUI, Iowa City, and a TV talk show host on WOC-TV. Peg is survived by a daughter, Sue Gnagy (John), Elkader, IA; a son, Jim Keenan, Bettendorf, IA; a daughter, Betsy Hickman (Joe), Indianapolis, IN; a daughter, Barb Bussen (Pat) St. Paul, MN; a daughter, Martha Anderson (Kathleen Shaw), Carbondale, IL; a brother-in-law, John Hill, Denver, CO; a sister-in-law, Julie MacGregor Porter (Jim), Prairie Village, KS; and numerous nieces and nephews from the Keenan, Schricker, Hill, and Porter families. She is also survived by her grandchildren (CHRON) John (Nedra), Peter (Debra), Katie (Dan), Barb (Chris), Alex, Andi, Will, Sam, Molly, and Andrew; by her great-grandchildren (CHRON) Michael, Charlie, Lizzie, Ben, Alex, Sally, and Joseph; and by two devoted friends, among many -- Cris Fister and Jean Armstrong. She loved her family and friends, including her caregivers at Ridgecrest, her books, newspapers, magazines, crossword puzzles, and intelligent conversation, until the day she died, and she was heard to say countless times over the years, "I've had a wonderful life."The family asks that in lieu of flowers, friends consider donations to the First Presbyterian Church of Davenport, the Foundation of the First Presbyterian Church, 1702 Iowa Street, Davenport, IA 52803, or, to the Ridgecrest Village Foundation, 4130 Northwest Boulevard, Davenport, Iowa 52806.