Margaret "Peggy" Lambert

Margaret Ann "Peggy" Lambert, née Corcoran, of Ivins, Utah left her beloved family, dear friends, and this world on January 11, 2025, after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She was 85 years-old.

Peggy was born on March 7, 1939 to Robert and Margaret Corcoran in San Luis Obispo, California, and spent all her formative years there. In her youth, she showed extraordinary talent in music, particularly voice and piano. As a teenager she worked in her family's downtown restaurant and was active in high-school music and social clubs. After graduating from University of the Pacific in music, Peggy married her sweetheart, L. Gary Lambert, in 1961 in Los Angeles. They lived the next two years in Berkeley, where she taught elementary school while Gary earned his bachelor's degree. It was there that she gave birth to her first child; two years later, she had her second child in Santa Barbara; and four years later, she had her third child in Houston, Texas. When Gary obtained his PhD and was hired by Brigham Young University, the family moved to Orem, Utah, where they had two more children and then adopted two children, making a total of seven.

In Utah Peggy pursued her passion for music by teaching private piano, singing in university choirs, directing community and church choirs, and teaching music at The Waterford School. For 15 years Peggy sang in The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, performing throughout the world and making some of the most lasting friendships of her life. In 1993 she graduated with honors from BYU with a Master's degree in music education. In 2007 she and Gary went to India as humanitarian missionaries and served for 18 months at Shanti Bhavan, a private school established to educate children from the lowest social caste; helping these students to develop musical talent, while Gary taught them English literature, brought her enormous joy and was perhaps her most cherished musical accomplishment. When they moved to southwest Utah, Peggy joined the Dixie State University Symphony, Southwestern Utah Cello Society, and Southwest Symphony Orchestra as a cellist; her final musical performance was the Orchestra's Christmas concert in December 2024.

While a Californian at heart, Peggy knew how to bloom where she was planted. Wherever she lived with Gary and her children – Orem, France (twice), Draper, India, and southwest Utah – she actively sought and created ways to enrich her community. She loved to cook – it was perhaps her primary love language – and try her hand at new, especially foreign, cuisines; after discovering any exciting flavor, she would set about reproducing it in her kitchen, to the great delight of everyone who was privileged to enjoy it. She was also an unstoppable maker of jams and jellies, churning them out with whatever fruit was available, then giving them to friends and neighbors.

From 2009 to 2016, Peggy was her husband's primary caregiver while he suffered from Parkinson's disease, which ultimately took his life. Given her life-long history of excellent health, she couldn't know at the time that eight years later she would face her own battle with a terminal neurological disease, albeit one that progressed much faster.

Peggy was insatiably curious and an inveterate reader, devouring countless books of every genre. In the evenings she could frequently be found watching public-television documentaries, especially ones that covered social injustice in the US and human suffering worldwide. Although people knew her as upbeat and happy, war, famine, violence, and poverty troubled her deeply; she was a long-time donor to organizations dedicated to alleviating poverty and improving health.

Family and friends remember Peggy as a learner and a doer. Whether working in her garden, practicing the cello, reading in the sunlight, staying abreast of world events, caring for someone who was ill, or painting landscapes, she enthusiastically engaged with life. She was determined and focused, but gentle, compassionate, loving, and warm.

Peggy was preceded in death by her husband Gary. She is survived by her sister Mary Ellen (Howard) Lamothe, children Eric, Gretchen Wiltbank, Brig (Leah), Inger (Jeff) Erickson, Kira (Joe) Wood, Jacob (Lucille), Mari (Dan) Hogelin, 22 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

The family will host an open house at Peggy's home on Saturday, January 18, 2025, from 11:00- 2:00pm. Address: 150 N. Snow Canyon Drive, Unit 13, Ivins, Utah 84738.