During and after the war years, she worked in the offices of colleges at which Tom taught, eventually settling with him in Rock Island, where he taught music at Augustana College. When their daughters, Anne and Linda were no longer little, Peg worked as a secretary to the academic dean and the director of alumni relations at Augustana. She took particular pride in the work she later did as secretary to the director of the Central States College Association.
Peg felt a responsibility to contribute to her community and was concerned for others. She was an active volunteer and an active supporter of charities, especially those benefiting children in need of help or guidance, and she responded to friends in need. At Augustana, she was a member of the Augustana Historical Society, the Augustana Endowment Society and Augustana Founders, and during the years, she volunteered in various capacities at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, where her husband was music director, and then at St. James Lutheran Church of Rock Island.
Upon retirement, she and Tom delivered Meals on Wheels. After moving to Friendship Manor, Rock Island, in 1999, Peg especially enjoyed tutoring children at a nearby elementary school, to which she initially traveled on foot. Even after moving to Augustana Apartments in Minneapolis in 2009, Peg chose to maintain her membership in St. James Lutheran Church of Rock Island, though at age 97 she also became the oldest new associate member of Grace University Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
Raised by her mother after the father she deeply loved died in 1923, and widowed at only 65, Peg was resilient. Despite losing her beloved Tom, she made an active, independent life for herself in Rock Island and maintained her house herself until shortly before moving to Friendship Manor. She was intelligent, inquiring, spirited, generous, appreciative, affectionate and fun-loving. She loved spiritual inquiry, books and ideas, flowers and flower gardening, children and music. Most of all, she was devoted to her family, and she doted on her grandchildren.
Peg was preceded in death by her husband, Tom; and by her beloved brother, the Rev. E. Edwin Burtner, and his wife, Bonita Burtner.
She is survived by daughter, Anne Hibbard (Peter Rode), Minneapolis; daughter, Linda Hibbard Farley (John), Henderson, Nev.; nephew, Robert Burtner (Mary), Dayton, Ohio; and grandchildren, Karen Hibbard-Rode Mager (Markus), Richmond, Ind., David Hibbard-Rode, Viroqua, Wis., Amy Farley, Menlo Park, Calif., and Sarah Farley, Eugene, Ore.
