Margaret 'Peg' Wright Mason

June 6, 1929 – April 30 2016

Longtime Moses Lake resident Margaret “Peg” Wright Mason passed away quietly in her sleep in Kennewick, Wash. on April 30, 2016. Funeral services will be held at the First Presbyterian Church in Moses Lake at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 20, 2016. Arrangements are in care of Kayser’s Chapel of Memories, Moses Lake.

Peg was born to Edward E. Wright and Beulah Schwartz Wright on June 6, 1929 in Elgin, Ill. She attended school in Dundee, Ill. until December 1941. Her father was a maintenance supervisor at a foundry and died from complications from a work accident. After America entered World War II both her brothers, Jack and Donald, entered the Army Air Corps, and her mother decided to join the war effort as an Army nurse assistant. Peg was sent to live with her Uncle Lawrence “Tubby” Wright and Aunt Florence, in Green Bay, Wisc. She attended school there and loved to tell stories of babysitting for families of the Green Bay Packers. After graduation from high school in Green Bay, Peg went west to Laramie, Wyo., to attend the University of Wyoming. While there her freshman year she met Bob Mason, the love of her life. Although they had to get permission from the Dean of Women, they were married in Burns, Wyo. on Dec 26, 1948. She soon became pregnant and had to put her education on hold. She continued to support Bob in his schooling and career.

By 1953 Peg had four children and Bob was teaching and coaching in Cheyenne and then Laramie, Wyo. In 1956 Peg competed in the Mrs. Wyoming contest. She won, although she liked to tell that she forgot to put the vanilla in the cake that won for her. She and Bob were sent to Daytona Beach, Fla for the Mrs. USA contest. Although she didn’t win, they had a great time. When the children were older she resumed her education and graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1960 with a degree in education. The family moved to Sheridan, Wyo. where Peg taught Spanish and typing at Sheridan High School. In 1962 the Mason family moved to Moses Lake, Wash. where Bob was to be the Dean of Men and wrestling coach at the newly-created Big Bend Community College. Peg taught typing and Spanish at Frontier Junior High and worked on a master’s degree in Library Science. After getting her M.A. in Library Science from the University of Washington, she then went to work as the librarian at Moses Lake High School, a position she held for 24 years. Peg never missed a wrestling match, football game, track or cross country meet, baseball game or tennis match that her four children were participating in at Chief Moses or the High School. After retiring from Moses Lake High School, Peg and Bob volunteered for a one-year mission trip to Penza, Russia through the Christian Missionary Alliance Church teaching Christian ethics to their school administration. After Bob’s death in 2000 she remained active as a volunteer in the surgery unit at Samaritan Hospital. She also played the violin in multiple community symphony orchestras and at churches in Moses Lake and Queen Valley, Ariz. She spent winters in Queen Valley, Ariz., until her health precluded it. She ran triathlons until she was 65 and was an active member in PEO and the Sons of Norway.

Peg was preceded in death by her parents, Ed and Beulah Wright; her brothers Don and Jack Wright; her husband, Bob; her son Gary and daughters-in law Ann and Ronda and her grandson, Kevin. She is survived by her son Lew and Kathy Mason of Moses Lake, son Don and Mary Mason of Gulf Breeze, Fla. and daughter Marie and Gary Tardiff of Richland, Wash. She leaves behind 13 grandchildren and 21 great-grand hildren. We loved her dearly and she will be missed as “Mor Mor” and Mom. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that anyone wishing to do so may contribute to the Bob and Peg Mason Scholarship fund at the Big Bend College Foundation, 7662 Chanute St. NE, Moses Lake WA 98837.