Margaret N Cope

• General Notes
  • Fille d'un captain de la Navy.
    
    Margaret C. "Peggy" Hiemenz Newport News - Peggy Hiemenz passed away on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at the Newport Nursing Home. She was born on July 26, 1914, in Kittery, Maine, daughter of the late Virginia Dellinger Cope and Capt. Elijah Henry Cope, USN. During World War I, her family moved to the mountains of Tennessee, before settling in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, where she graduated from Newton High School. She was a talented pianist, often performing recitals in New York City, and studied music at Vassar College and Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She remembered seeing her future husband, Herbert J. Hiemenz, USN, at a party for the Brazilian midshipmen with a cigarette in one hand and a cocktail in the other. "He was so lively," she said, "that I knew he was the man I was going to marry." They married October 17, 1936, and, after living in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Mare Island, Palos Verdes, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Washington, D.C., finally settled in Newport News for the last 57 years where they raised their children. Peggy was a charming and dutiful Navy wife hosting innumerable parties and an energetic volunteer for the Peninsula Symphony and Garden Club. Her artistic skills were not limited to the piano or canvas but evident by daily creative culinary delights for her family. She was compassionate to the elderly, spending many hours visiting them in nursing homes and a friend to persons of all ages as she eagerly anticipated serving punch and cookies to costumed visitors each Halloween. But most of all, Peggy was a devoted mother and grandmother. Peggy will be remembered for her dynamic character, clever wit, and as a wonderful host. She continued to play piano until she was 97. In her later years she exercised mind with the Daily Jumble, playing bridge, and by reading three or four books at a time. About her health, she would say "If it doesn't hurt, it doesn't work!" She also believed in the power of a daily 5 o'clock martini. Peggy was happy to have met Queen Elizabeth II at the 350th anniversary of the landing at Jamestown in 1957, and to have studied art with E.W. Kemble, Mark Twain's illustrator of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Friends said she could have doubled for Ellen Burnstyn. Peggy is survived by all her children, Jack of New York, Cope of Newport News, Greg and his wife, Michelle, and Mimi of Charlottesville; granddaughters, Jessica of Boston and Ashley of Charlottesville; step grandson, Trey of Charlottesville; sister Connie Taylor of Montana, and her children, Linda Horciza, Petaluna, California, Lisa McKittrick, Great Falls, Montana, and Bruce, Arlington; and cousin, Rosemary and her husband, Bud, of Texas. She fondly said she had six children, including special friends, Darcy Nelson and Allison Perry, in her family. Peggy will be buried next to Herb in Arlington National Cemetery. Friends are invited to her home in Newport News for a celebration of her life, Sunday, April, 28, 2013 at 5 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hampton Roads Academy.

Details of Margaret N's family with Captain Herbert John Hiemenz