Peg Martin

Peg Martin was a true lady with a beautiful smile and a generous heart. A loving mother and devoted wife, Peg was the happiest when she was with her family, and in their company a familiar smile always brimmed over her lips.

America was a much smaller country in the year 1909, with a union of just forty-six states and only ten miles of paved roads. The pace to life was more relaxed and people had more time to focus on family. In Hartford, Indiana, a small town near Muncie, Louis Hutchinson and his wife Lou Listenfeldt eagerly anticipated the birth of their fifth child. On October 30, 1909, they gladly welcomed their daughter Mahala "Peg" into their home on the family farm.

The second youngest of six children, Peg enjoyed a pleasant childhood in Hartford with the company of her five siblings. She often helped her mother around the house, and sometimes aided her father in his farm work. Peg attended Hartford City High School where she graduated in the late 1920's. During her junior year, at the age of seventeen, she married her sweetheart and lifelong love Bob Martin. Two years later, the young couple was blessed with the healthy birth of the first son Harold Robert.

While Robert was still a baby, Peg and Bob lived in Marion, Indiana for a short while before resettling in Michigan, where Bob had found work as a driver for an oil truck and, later, a bakery. Here Peg and Bob welcomed their second child Jack, who was born six years after Robert. When Jack was three years old, the Martin family moved to Kalamazoo where Bob began working as a gas truck driver. Peg also spent a few years working for Gilmore's Department Store, a job she always loved. The family later moved to Gourdnik Lake where they lived for just over five years.

Over the years Peg and Bob formed many businesses together, including a gas station in Kalamazoo and a hardware store in Battle Creek. Peg was a skilled mathematician who always handled the accounting books. Since Peg did not like the cold season in Michigan, she and Bob began spending their winters in Homestead, Florida where they owned a frozen food franchise business. In the late 1950's Peg and Bob decided to sell their hardware store and permanently move to Homestead. They spent the next twenty-five years together in Florida, and they loved every minute of it.

Peg and Bob were blessed with a loving marriage which lasted over fifty years. They shared a lot of the same interests, which included traveling, dining out, and going for drives together. Peg enjoyed the finer things in life such as nice restaurants and handsome clothes, although she was also proud of being a bargain shopper. Peg was a great refinisher of antiques and an excellent seamstress. She made clothing for her dolls and grandchildren entirely by hand. She also enjoyed paying bingo and collecting Roster.

Among her family and many friends, Peg will be remembered as an elegant lady with a feisty charisma. Following the education she received at Charm School in Homestead, Peg always coordinated her outfits and accessorized with beautiful pieces of jewelry. As she often said, you can "make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." Peg understood fashion and style, and she wore her clothes very well. Although her exterior looks were important to her, Peg was equally beautiful on the inside. Among the many people who loved her, Peg will be frequently remembered for her kind heart and loving ways.

Peg died on December 5, 2005 at Heritage Community Nursing Home. There will be no visitation or service and cremation will take place. She was preceded in death by her husband H. Robert "Bob" Martin, Sr. in 1982; five siblings and by a daughter in law Frannie Martin and by a grandson Tim Martin. Members of Peg's family include two sons: Harold Martin of Kalamazoo and Jack (LaVerne) Martin of Negaunee, MI; eight grandchildren; 17 great grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. Please visit Peg's personal memory page at www.lifestorynet.com where you can archive a favorite memory, order flowers, or make a memorial contribution to Heritage Community. Arrangements by BETZLER LIFE STORY FUNERAL HOME, Stadium Drive (West of US-131)