Margaret Imelda Maguire

Margaret Imelda Dunning (Peggy) was born in Gympie on the 7th of December 1941 - the exact day of the Pearl Harbor attack in Hawaii during WW2. The daughter of Harry and Bess Dunning, and youngest sibling of Ailsa and Brian, she was a talented piano player and singer who attended Saint Patrick's College (Convent) in Gympie in the 1950s. While at the College she was taught by Sister Margaret Hanley who would become a lifelong friend. Peggy worked professionally as a singer on the club circuit in Brisbane and Sydney in the early 1960s. She also worked as a secretary in both the government and private sectors including time spent with the film production company Metro Goldwyn Mayer - MGM. After a stint in hospitality, which saw her employed on the Whitsunday Islands and in regional Queensland, she married John Maguire in the Queensland opal town of Quilpie on April 23 1966. They started their family in the Burnett town of Kilkivan and Peggy gave birth to their two eldest children Jodie and Todd in Gympie. A move to the Gold Coast in 1971 saw Peggy and John buy their first house at Miami and soon after Peggy gave birth to their youngest child Daniel. Peggy was an active member of the Burleigh Heads Catholic Parish for almost half a century and in the 1970s regularly cleaned the beautiful Infant Saviour Church in Park Avenue. She was also a volunteer at the Burleigh Heads Library and in the 1980s was heavily involved with the Gold Coast Little Athletics Club. While at the club she was a ticket writer; field events official; fundraiser and Registrar. She was the inaugural coordinator of the first ever South Coast Zone Little Athletics titles in 1982. In the 1990s Peggy continued with her volunteering spirit and worked for Amnesty International in Queen Street, Brisbane. During these years she also regularly visited her mother Bess and in 1993 helped her with the move from Brisbane back to Gympie where Bess lived out her days at The Villa. In 2001 Peggy suffered a massive stroke and, after time in rehabilitation at Saint Vincent's Hospital (Robina), she bravely went home. In the following decade her daughter Jodie married Tim and Todd married Mandy. John and Peggy became grandparents to Nathaniel and Sofia. In 2009 John died from a brain tumour aged 69. Peggy maintained her weekly attendance at Miami's Calvary Catholic Church throughout the 2010s where she was a much loved member of the Parish community. In 2017 Peggy attended the Dedication of the Mary, Mother of Mercy Church at Marymount College - a ceremony presided over by the Archbishop of Brisbane. Peggy's name adorns the Honour Board dedicated to those foundation donors who helped to build this Church. Her name is also inscribed on two other plaques within the Church - one on a perpetual pew and the other on a wall in the Columbarium. After a brief battle with cancer she passed away at the age of 77 on the Gold Coast on April 23 2019 - her 53rd wedding anniversary. She is now in Heaven in God's care.