Margaret P. Doyle

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Margaret Patterson Doyle (Peg), age 88, who passed away peacefully on Sunday, September 20, 2020, in Fairfax. Beloved mother, grandmother, sister and aunt, Peg's three daughters were grateful to be with her at the end. Peg, or Margaret as she is called by her family, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest child of John J. Patterson, a New York City Police Officer and Mary Kelly Patterson, a hard-working 5th Avenue department store employee. The young family soon welcomed a son, John, and then another daughter, Anne, a few years later. Mary's mother, also named Margaret, lived with them as well. John and Mary managed to save enough money to purchase a brick townhouse in Queens, which would become their home for the rest of their lives. As a child, Margaret focused her time on playing the piano and her studies, becoming a straight A student. But she was also an active child who loved riding her bicycle in the park, roller-skating at the indoor roller rink, swimming in the local pool and, as she got older, she became a camp counselor during the summer months, and was the goalie on the girls Lacrosse team. Blessed with a wonderful singing voice with nearly perfect pitch, Margaret joined her parents in singing in the choir at the local Lutheran church. Throughout her teens and early twenties, Margaret pursued her love of music by singing at weddings and at other small events, as well as participating in some musical theater productions. After graduating high school, Margaret attended New York University, earning both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts in Physical Education before continuing on to do some Doctoral work at Columbia University. She decided to pursue Education as a career path and found herself teaching second grade at a private school in Brooklyn for several years after college. Her summers were usually spent as an Assistant Head Counselor of a girl’s camp but her yearn to travel found her setting off alone on a tour of England and Europe for a delightful two months in the summer of 1954. In that same year, Margaret joined, along with her mother, the Women’s Masonic Order of the Eastern Star, to which she would be a life-long member. In 1957, a 24-year-old Margaret decided to join the Army Special Services, which whisked her away to work in the rec center on the U.S. Army base in Bremerhaven, Germany. She had only been there a couple of months when a handsome young American GI from Ohio named John Doyle entered the club one day, and the rest, as they say, is history. It was a whirlwind courtship - they were engaged in six weeks and married six months later. Their two-week honeymoon itinerary sounded like a fantasy trip: Venice, Rome, Capri, Pompey, Florence, Milan, and the Italian Riviera. And it wasn't long - only 11 months later - that Margaret and John welcomed a baby girl, Laura Ann. When John's Army service was complete, the young family returned to Queens to live with Margaret's parents and younger sister, Anne. John found a job on Wall Street while Margaret settled into her role as a loving mother. It wasn't long before John got a job with National Cash Register and the three moved to Dayton, Ohio, where another daughter, Mary Kelly, was born a few years later. In 1967, the family moved to Northern Virginia after John got a civilian position at the Pentagon. They bought a home in Chantilly, Virginia, long before it was fashionable, and welcomed the birth of their last child, another daughter, Heather Ann. In 1971, the family temporarily moved to Syracuse, New York, for 18 months while John earned his MBA. Peg (as Margaret was now known) and John made a conscious decision to put Peg’s career outside the home on hold until their youngest daughter was in school. Since the girls were five years apart that worked quite well: as each one started school, the next was a baby and could receive Peg’s undivided love, attention, and nurturing. During these years, however, Peg still pursued her love for music and singing. At one point, during their time in Ohio, her Sundays were rush, rush, rush from 8:00 AM to noon: she simultaneously was the Soloist for the Christian Scientist Church, the director of the junior choir at the Methodist Church, and lead soprano for the Lutheran Church. An exciting change came when John accepted a government job in Seoul, Korea, and the family of five headed overseas. It was a wonderful opportunity to experience another country and culture and allowed for easy visits to Japan and Taiwan as well. With Heather heading off to school by this time, Peg returned to teaching, becoming the head teacher and Director of the Morning Calm Preschool, where children of military and diplomatic personnel attended. Many were Korean American children of GIs who lived with their Korean in-laws and therefore only knew Korean. The satisfaction of helping these young children improve their English skills, greatly influenced Peg’s decision to become an English as a Second Language teacher later in life. The Doyle family loved living in Korea. John liked to tease Peg that it was her ‘five-year shopping excursion.' The Korean shopkeepers in Itaewon were overjoyed when they saw Mrs. Doyle pull up in her Oldsmobile Delta 88. After five fantastic years in Seoul, the family returned stateside, where Peg and John bought a home in Oakton, Virginia, where they lived for eighteen years until they retired. Peg established herself as a teacher of English as a Second Language in the Fairfax County School System. She was recognized as a Level 2 (Master) teacher based on periodic classroom evaluation and mentoring performance. During her career she taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Her last assignment was developing the ESL program at Centreville High School. In the fall of 1995, Peg and John retired and moved to the Tampa Florida area, landing in a brand-new neighborhood where they quickly made friends. They started playing duplicate bridge and Peg discovered Mahjong. Cooking for their gourmet dinner club, attending various plays and concerts, endless happy hours and parties kept them very busy. Their annual Chinese New Year party was a particularly big hit. The desire to travel was still in their blood. Peg and John took several cruises to the western Gulf of Mexico. Another time they flew from Tampa to San Francisco, and then drove to Los Angeles where they boarded a cruise ship that sailed down the coast of California, to Mexico and Colombia and thru the Panama Canal and then back on to Tampa. Another cruise to Scandinavia, St. Petersburg Russia, and the Baltic States was the trip of a lifetime. In early 2007, Peg fell and shattered her femur in three places and had to endure a long rehabilitation. After that, Peg said to John, “Let’s go home to the girls," so they returned to Virginia and lived in Leisure World until they moved to Sommerset Retirement Community in August 2015. They were thrilled to again be near to their three daughters and their families, which now included two granddaughters and one grandson. They were grateful to be able to see the grandkids grow up into strong and independent young people. In April 2018, Peg and John celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary but just a few months later, in August 2018, John passed away after a short illness. John had been Peg's rock, but she mustered her inner strength and carried on for two more years. This last year, Peg was in and out of the hospital and rehab five times. She put up a valiant fight, but at just one month shy of her 89th birthday, it was her time to join John. Those are the simple facts of Margaret P. Doyle's life. But she was so much more than that to her daughters, her family and her friends. She was bold and daring when at the age of 24, she quit her stable teaching job to move to Germany to work for the Department of Army running a rec center. In 2020, that would still be a huge step for a young single woman, but in the world of the mid-1950’s that was a huge leap of faith. She was exuberant and happy when she would sing. As recently as last year, Peg was still occasionally singing at events at Sommerset Retirement Community. Peg singing to Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett songs as well as show-tunes from the car radio were staples of any family outing, no matter how short the trip. When Seoul American High School in Korea was putting on the musical The Sound of Music, Peg drove Laura to the try-outs and was waiting in the wings for her when, no one remembers how it happened exactly, Peg got cast in the role of Mother Abbess. Laura was a member of the show cast as well and was there to see her mother's delivery of ‘Climb Every Mountain’ bring down the house on opening night. Whenever attending church, fellow parishioners would come up to Peg after the service and say what a remarkable singing voice she had and joke that they need to sit near her next time so that they could sound better themselves. She was an exceptional teacher. Peg’s professional calling was teaching English as a Second Language. Beyond the typical academic lessons, she was very creative in how she taught English to her students. Using nursery rhymes, poems and song, she was able to teach them not only the English language but also about different facets of American history or culture. For years, many of her previous students would call her at home to tell her of their recent accomplishments – that they had graduated from high school or from college or that they had gotten a good job. She was so proud of them and they were so grateful for what she had done for them. She truly helped shape their lives. She was outgoing and friendly. In her later years, Peg rode a bright red scooter when she was out and about. In the cool weather, she would have on her red cape and, of course, her matching red lipstick. Everyone would turn and look and many people would say hello to her. She always welcomed the opportunity to stop and talk to someone. She would read several newspapers from front to back every single day. She had extraordinary penmanship. She was funny and stubborn (she was 100% Irish after all). She had remarkable ironing skills. She was a wiz at Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. She was a night-owl. She loved watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. She loved clipping articles from magazines. She loved jewelry, especially rings, and the signature gold hoop earrings that she always wore. She was an extraordinary mother. Fiercely protective - her daughters would say overprotective - Peg always told the girls that she loved them more than anything in the world and that they could do and be anything that they wanted. She loved and was loved without measure. She and John gave their three daughters everything that they could have ever wanted, teaching them by example how to live a good and honest life. She was everything. She was mother. Peg is survived by her daughters Laura Goodman, Mary Kelly DeFranco and Heather Sipe; her sons-in-law Bill Goodman and Tom DeFranco: her two granddaughters Jennifer Goodman and Kristen Goodman; her grandson John DeFranco; her sister and brother-in-law Anne and Bob Roche; and her nephews John Roche, Bill Roche, John Patterson, Tom Patterson, and Jim Patterson. Peg was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, John W. Doyle; her sister-in-law and brother Dorothy and John Patterson; her nephew Bobby Roche; and her son-in-law Scott Sipe. A private funeral for family and close family friends is planned for Sunday, September 27, 2020 at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia.