Peggy Hillyer, (nee Haines) of Town & Country, passed away surrounded by family on Saturday, April 6, 2024.
Peggy was born in the small farming community of Macomb, Illinois on March 7, 1935. She loved her ponies, especially Sandy Sugar, whom she rode to a one-room schoolhouse every day accompanied by her dog, Cooley. She’d ride bareback in the winter because her pony was warm. When she got a little older, she’d spend her hours after school giving her grandfather a break in the fields, trading in the pony for a tractor.
Peggy graduated from high school in a class of only 13 in 1953. Under a picture of her in her high school yearbook the caption said, "Peggy Haines: Vim, Vigor and Vitality." She was an excellent athlete, semi-pro softball player, accomplished bowler and golfer. She attended Western Illinois University and married in 1955.
Peggy always wanted to live in the "big city" and ended up moving to St. Louis in 1961. She worked at Emerson Electric and Esco Technologies in various administrative positions for over 50 years. Anyone who knew Peggy in St. Louis would have been surprised to learn she'd been a small town farm girl because she always dressed impeccably, with a keen sense of fashion and her signature shock of white amidst her otherwise dark hair.
Peggy enjoyed golf, gardening, decorating and shopping.
Peggy was preceded in death by her father, Robert "Toddy" Haines, her mother, Minnie Friday, and her brother, Dwight (Dianne) Haines.
She was the devoted mother of Michael (Lisa) Hillyer and Michelle (Peter) Drochelman. She was the loving grandmother, "Grandy", of Scott (Cassie) Drochelman, Matthew (Holley) Drochelman, Rachael Hillyer and Erika Hillyer, and great-grandmother of Sam Drochelman and Lucy Drochelman. She was the dear sister of Linda Berglund and Cheri (Gene) Jones.