Margaret W Byers

Margaret Wilson “Peggy” Shipp was born in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 1927. Peggy was raised by her mother, Wilma Shipp, and grandfather, Julius Wilson. Her mother died when Peggy was just 15, her grandfather three years later. After high school, Peggy went to work for PEPCO. In December 1947, she met West Point cadet John Byers on a blind date. They fell deeply in love and were married June 9, 1951. A few months later, John was sent to Korea.

Peggy wasn’t left on her own, however. She had become like a daughter to Bob and Anna Milburn; a sister to their four boys, Bob (Rocky, John’s roommate at West Point), Rich, Donnie and Billy; and a granddaughter to Anna’s father, known to all as Pepa. Bob and Anna gave her away at her wedding and when John went to Korea, she moved into their home. Peggy and John’s first child, Susan, was born in 1952, while John was still at war. In December 1954, the Milburns cemented their relationship with Peggy by adopting her, so that if anything should happen to John, she would have a family.

Peggy and John’s daughter Leslie was born in 1956 while they lived in Germany. After being stationed at Fort Knox, Ky., they moved to Georgia, where their son, Daniel, was born in 1960. They returned to Fort Knox, then lived briefly in California before moving to the D.C. area, staying with the Milburns while a new house was built on Chancery Court in Alexandria. Peggy and the kids moved into the house in December 1964 while John was in Viet Nam. Except for three more years in Germany, Chancery Court would be John and Peggy’s home for the rest of their lives. They would become lifelong friends with Bill and Helen Evans next door, and with a number of other families there.

Being an officer’s wife in those days carried many responsibilities in addition to managing hearth and home. Peggy became the consummate hostess, gracious and charming, and an accomplished chef. Beautiful, tall and slender, she was always fashionable, often in clothes she made herself. She and John were excellent dancers, and more than once, others stopped to watch and applaud them. Peggy learned to speak a little German and could still manage a conversation decades after living abroad.

When her children were grown, she worked as a docent at Mount Vernon—one of the first women hired—and later at the Blossom Shop in Alexandria. For decades, she and friends from the neighborhood worked at the White House as volunteers for the Republican Women (under presidents of both parties), sending birthday cards to seniors.

After John retired, he and Peggy bought the Prince Royal Gallery in Old Towne Alexandria, which they ran for 20 years. Peggy continued to host the many receptions they held there. She also started and managed a reception every year at the Fort Belvoir Chapel following the choir’s performance of Handel’s Messiah. Peggy sang in the choir there for four decades.

A devoted animal lover, Peggy rescued five feral kittens while working at Mount Vernon, taming and then finding homes for all of them. The house always had multiple cats and dogs, including several cats John and Peggy fostered for soldiers and state department personnel deployed overseas, and their beloved Akitas, Bono and Abel. They also kept a beautiful koi pond. She and John generously supported dozens of charities, many of them for animals and soldiers.

Declining health forced Peggy to move into assisted living shortly before John died in July 2012. She never recovered from the loss of her husband and her home. On December 11, 2013, after a brief illness, she quietly slipped away to go dancing with the soldier she had loved so much, a glass of bubbly in her hand.

She is survived by her children, Susan Byers (Len Slobodin), Leslie Byers (David Evans) and Daniel Byers (Maira Byers); by nine grandchildren, Ian, Bryn and Tristan Evans, Samuel, Zoe, Leah and Ben Slobodin, and Juliana and Andrew Byers; and by her brothers, Bob (Joyce), Richard (Joan), Donald (Nancy) and Bill; as well as many dear friends around the world.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the ASPCA, the Alexandria Animal Welfare League, Defenders of Wildlife, Republicans for Choice, or Planned Parenthood.