Peggy Louise Wedgeworth Wright departed life on November 26, 2019. These words from Psalms guided her path: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) “Only in God is my soul at rest; From Him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 61:2-3)
Peggy Wright lived her entire life in Nacogdoches County. On January 24, 1924, her mother Eva Bell Evans, assisted by Dr. Taylor Mast, gave birth to Peggy at the family home next door to the schoolhouse in Chireno. At the time of her birth, her father Monnie Wedgeworth was Superintendent of Schools there. While Peggy spent her preschool years in Chireno, when her father transferred in 1929 to Cushing, she entered the first grade in the northwest part of the county. In 1933, her father’s promotion to head the Nacogdoches County School System allowed the family to relocate to the city of Nacogdoches. This move permitted her parents to offer their daughter a richer educational environment. They immediately enrolled Peggy in the fifth grade class at Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College’s advanced educational program called “the Demonstration School.” Peggy thrived in this model program. In her senior year, her classmates elected her president of the student body. The next fall, in 1940, she moved with ease into the regular collegiate program at SFA, majoring in music and English.
In her first college year, Peggy accepted a blind date with Tom Wright for a local campus dance. (Tom, six years older, was a junior officer in the US Army on leave from his initial tour of duty.) Two years later, in September of 1942, Peggy agreed to marry Tom. During the twenty-nine months they were separated, as Tom served on active duty in Europe from Sicily to France, Peggy completed her college degree. After the war, Tom rejoined his family’s important business, Texas Farm Products Company of Nacogdoches. Tom and Peggy lived happily married for seventy years until Tom’s death in 2012. Surviving Tom and Peggy are their two beloved daughters, Kitty and Peggy, six grandchildren, and sixteen great-grandchildren.
While Peggy taught school for one year at the end of World War II, her career was her family. Her work until the early -1970s revolved almost exclusively around her husband, two daughters, and the Westminster Presbyterian Church. She belonged to numerous organizations, such as Cum Concilio, Rotary Anns, Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames, and the Duplicate Bridge Association, but she limited her leadership roles until after her daughters married.
In the late 1960s, as her alma mater moved from the college to university status, Peggy responded readily to the call of her institutional family. She played an important role in the transition and expansion of the Ex-Student Association into the modern Alumni Association. On the eve of becoming the association’s president, Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe, in recognition of her work, appointed Peggy to the newly created SFA Board of Regents. With this appointment, Peggy commenced a new phase in her life. She served two long official terms as a Regent, from 1973 to 1983 and from 1987 to 1993. She became the first woman to hold the positon of Chairman of the Board, an elected office she held twice from 1980-1982 and again from 1988-1990. To advance and coordinate the endowments for SFA, Peggy helped to establish and to lead, as Treasurer, the SFASU University Foundation. During the remaining years of her life, Peggy took a major interest in all the dynamic changes taking place at SFA. She worked closely with six presidents, endless administrative and planning commissions, and periodic celebratory groups to mark the university’s anniversaries. SFA President Dr. Baker Pattillo called Peggy Wright “the university’s most devoted graduate.”
In addition to service, Peggy and Tom Wright gave generously to Stephen F. Austin State University. At first, they endowed a lecture series, which brought famous scholars and President Jimmy Carter to the campus; later, they consolidated their gifts into the Wedgeworth-Wright Endowment for the Arts. To acknowledge her varied contributions, The SFA Friends of the Arts celebrated Peggy’s life by bestowing the title of “East Texas Cultural Leader of the Year” in 1997. In the same year, SFASU chose to honor Peggy’s lifetime of nurturing patronage to her alma mater by granting her an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters – the highest honor the institution has to offer and the only woman to have received this unique academic distinction. The Regents followed in 1999 by naming the music building in honor of Tom and Peggy Wright.
Peggy’s other accolades included: Director, Citizens First Bank of Nacogdoches; Regent for the Nacogdoches Chapter of the DAR; All American Donor, SFA Athletic Fund; Distinguished Member Award, President’s Club, and Honorary Life Member, SFA Alumni Association; Honorary Member, SFA Women’s Club; Zeta Tau Alpha; Board of Directors, SFA Center for Economic Education of the State of Texas; Governor’s Board, Texas Arts Alliance. She was an active member of the Westminster Presbyterian Church serving as an elder on the session and on several other church committees. Peggy loved music. She was a soloist, pianist, and dedicated member of her church choir. Her passion for music was evident throughout her life as it led her interest in the Stephen F. Austin School of Music.
Surviving members of Tom and Peggy Wright’s family include daughter Katherine (Kitty) and her husband Tieman (Skipper) Dippel, Jr., of Brenham; their youngest daughter Peggy and her husband Lynn Newman live in Dallas. There are six grandchildren and their spouses: Meg and Dathan Voelter, Tee and Sunny Dippel, Beth and Tres Masser, Margaret and Bryant Fitts, Caroline and Jason Peters, and Laura Pollock. Peggy’s sixteen great-grandchildren are: Evelyn Voelter, Wright Voelter, Margaret Grace Voelter, Victoria Dippel, Ty Dippel, Evan Dippel, Cuatro Masser, Kate Masser, Bethanne Fitts, Thomas Fitts, William Fitts, Matthew Fitts, Madeline Peters, Michael Peters, Andrew Peters, and Caden Peters. Many beloved nieces and nephews also survive Tom and Peggy Wright.
The Wright family thanks Doris Berry, Eva Christopher, Tamara Keggler, Ruby Tutt, Hilda Villanueva, Ty Wallace, Undra Ward, Shirley Thorn, and especially, Belinda Wallace for their care and concern. They also thank Dr. Richard Baker for his concern and close medical attention for over 20 years. The family deeply appreciates the love and support of lifelong friends, Dolores Mallory, Winifred Davis, and James Mallory.
Pallbearers will be Tieman Dippel III, Josh Evans, Bryant Fitts, Tres Masser, John Mast, Jason Peters, David Shofner, Dathan Voelter, Ben Wright, Steele Wright III, and Steele Wright IV.
Honorary Pallbearers include George Clark, Mark Clark, Ken Deppisch, Tieman Dippel Jr., Bob Kingham, Jim Kingham, John Kingham, Chris Kline, Adlai Mast IV, Travis Mast III, Lynn Newman, Jim Perkins, Raymond Rinker, Robert Rinker, Dr. David Sanderson, Jerry Sutton, John Swearingen, and Richard Wright.
A Memorial service will be held, 2:30 PM, Monday, December 2, 2019 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 903 North Street, Nacogdoches, Texas. A reception will follow at the Fredonia Hotel in the Banita Ballroom.
In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to Westminster Presbyterian Church. Arrangements are under the direction and care of Cason Monk-Metcalf Funeral Directors, located at 5400 North Street in Nacogdoches. Online memories and condolences may be offered at www.CasonMonk-Metcalf.com
