Peggy “Irish” Wilson entered into the kingdom of God on November 12, 2014, after quite a life. Peggy was born to Julia Boyle O’Neill and Hugh O’Neill on lucky July 13, 1921, on the O’Neill family homestead in the Town of Seymour, Lafayette County, Wisconsin. Peggy didn’t know her given name was Margaret until her first day of school when the teacher informed her she would be known as Margaret in her classroom from now on. Peggy’s formative years were full of God, family and farming in Seymour, until the Great Depression years, when mortgages, family tragedies and sicknesses took their toll and the family was forced to move off the family homestead. Peggy spent three years at Shullsburg High School, but then graduated in 1941 from Cuba City High School after missing a year of school due to another family move and a terrible bout with rheumatic fever. Peggy lived in a rented room in Shullsburg with her cousin to be able to get to high school there. After high school, Peggy O’Neill worked in the Leadmine General Store and Post Office where she met the love of her life, the mail carrier at the time, Boyd Wilson. They were married on November 27, 1948, in a small ceremony in the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church Chapel with Minerva O’Neill as maid of honor and Arnold Peacock as best man. The couple settled in a rented house at the southwest side of the viaduct bridge on STH 11. The couple then built their home on Calvert Street in Benton where Peggy settled in working at Bowman’s Rock Store, as a census worker for the Benton Community School District, and selling Avon Products (your Benton Avon Lady) for many years. Boyd died on October 10, 1978, and Peggy continued on with the help of her many friends and relatives. She was a 46 year survivor of breast cancer with a double radical mastectomy in 1968, but the cancer finally caught up with her and her Irish luck again in 2014. Peggy loved golfing at Cole Acres Country Club where she and Boyd were charter members and Peggy spent a term on the board of directors; fishing on the Fever with her boys; traveling with her family to Ireland, Padre Island, Texas, and San Diego, California to name a few places; and spent much of her time watching the Packers, and baseball in which Boyd spent years as a player and manager for the Benton town team and rooting for her lovable loser Chicago Cubs, who she is still waiting to win a World Series. Peggy loved her card club friends who got together one Saturday every month for 50 years, with some very special New Year’s Eve parties. She loved to bake, especially for her grandchildren, and her chocolate chip cookies, ginger cookies, and cinnamon rolls were legendary. Peggy was also a member of the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Benton, including the Altar and Rosary Society, the Benton Legion Auxiliary, and formerly served as a director of the Lafayette County Cancer Society. Peggy is survived by her sister Lorna O’Neill Burns (George W.) of Shullsburg; daughter Suzanne Chicoine (fiancé Stephen Nelson) of Appleton; sons Stephen Boyd Wilson (Judy) of Neenah and Thomas G. Wilson (Alicia) of Waunakee; grandchildren Tom (Kristen), Brian and Becky Chicoine, Helen and Emma Wilson, and Holly, Hillary (fiancé Forrest Olson) and Hannah Wilson; great-granddaughter Alexis Chicoine, and many wonderful loving nieces, nephews and their children. Peggy was preceded in death by her husband Boyd D. Wilson, mother Julia Boyle O’Neill, father Hugh O’Neill, sisters Minerva O’Neill, Therese Morrissey, and Mary Eileen Fiedler, brother Charles O’Neill, beloved mother-in-law Della Bonhoff Wilson who lived with Peggy and her children many years before and after her son Boyd had passed, and many loving Irish aunts, uncles and cousins. Special family thanks to Sharon Bastian and Betty Dellabella who went above and beyond in the last few years as special care takers to Peggy; to Gary and Sherry Timmerman for the ever vigilant neighborly care; Jeanette Schleifer for her over 60 years of friendship and spending more Friday night fish fries together than any other widows in Wisconsin history; the staff of great medical professionals at Medical Associates in Cuba City, Platteville and Dubuque for care second to none; to the Hazel Green First Responders for coming to the rescue when called; to Mercy Hospital physicians and staff in Dubuque for stabilizing her health when the worst was anticipated; and to all the staff at Manor Care in Appleton along with Heartland Hospice Care for making her last days comfortable for such an independent soul. Services will be 11:00 a.m. Saturday, November 15, 2014, at St. Patrick's Church in Benton with Rev. David Flanagan officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Friends may call after 9 a.m. Saturday at the church before the service. Casey Funeral Home & Cremation Services of Benton is in charge of arrangements.

“May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the Sun shine warm upon you face, And the rain fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”

Old Irish Verse