Margaret ‘Peggy’ O’Donnell kept family together across continents, generations

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Margaret O’Donnell with her Irish soda bread. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times

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Updated: September 21, 2011 12:34AM

Margaret “Peggy” O’Donnell left her family’s farm in Ireland in 1944 with little but a promise to her mother: She would keep the family together.

This was the days before international telephone calls and Facebook, a time when leaving Ireland often meant never seeing your parents again. But Mrs. O’Donnell kept her promise.

“Every holiday, every special occasion, every milestone, they were all together,” said her daughter Maureen O’Donnell, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter. “By virtue of her spirit and her hosting events, she made sure the family not only stayed together, but the next generation, we’re all close.”

On Friday, Mrs. O’Donnell’s children kept the 67-year-old promise their mother made to her mother.

Her family was together, with her, when Mrs. O’Donnell, 84, died at her home.

Keeping the family close was a labor of love across continents and generations. Mrs. O’Donnell was born Margaret O’Grady in Killasser, a small village outside Swinford in County Mayo, the second of eight children. All were assigned a job on the family farm, and Mrs. O’Donnell spent hours in the difficult work of “dibbling” — placing potato slices with the eyes facing up in holes her father dug.

In 1944, with limited opportunities in Ireland, an 18-year-old Margaret and her older sister, Winnie, traveled to England. They lived and worked in a hospital as nurse’s aides during the Blitz, taking cover from German bombs in subways or under tables.

The pair got by on limited food rations. Sometimes, the only protein available was an egg a week. They lived in fear of the sound of the “doodlebug,” an unmanned German bomber whose wasplike engine went silent moments before it exploded; and of working in the hospital’s tuberculosis ward. Before either walked into the TB ward, they made the sign of the cross and prayed.

“They were always petrified they would catch something,” O’Donnell said. “At the time, it could be a death sentence.”

But World War II life in London wasn’t all terror for a young Irish woman.

“She went to a lot of dances,” her daughter said. “People learned to make their own fun, and there were a lot of lively dance halls.”

In 1950, Mrs. O’Donnell ventured to America. After five nauseous days aboard the RMS Georgic, she arrived in New York City, where she boarded a train bound for Chicago, home to a brother, sister and aunt. With her green-gray eyes and her warm smile, she soon caught the eye of William O’Donnell. The young man had grown up just a few miles from her in Swinford, but they never met until they both went to a ballroom at Montrose and Elston.

Three months after their first dance, they were engaged. They settled into life on the Northwest Side, near St. Bartholomew parish at Addison Street and Lavergne Avenue. Eventually, four of Mrs. O’Donnell’s siblings made it to America, all but one settling in the Chicago area. In 1954, she started going back to Ireland to visit family, traveling there for the last time last year for a wedding.

From the 1950s through the 1990s, Mrs. O’Donnell was a cashier and deli employee at High-Low Foods and Jewel Foods. She and her husband sometimes worked as many as five jobs between them to put all four of their children through college.

The work ethic and boundless energy that she developed on the farm continued to the very end of her life. Until just a few months before her death, she did housekeeping for a family in Glencoe. During the 35 years she worked for them, she became like a member of the family.

Mrs. O’Donnell took pride in dressing neatly, in taking care of things she worked hard to buy. Whatever the event, she carefully put together her outfit, from her earrings to her shoes. “Whether it was a cookout in someone’s yard or a wedding or a funeral or dance, she always had such an elegant way about her,” her daughter said.

She was unfailingly polite and sweet, calling everyone “dear” and “dolly.” But she was also “someone with a twinkle in her eye,” scoring backstage passes to meet the Irish Tenors and enjoying Beefeater gin mixed with Schweppes tonic water.

“She loved ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ ” her daughter said. “Derek Hough was her favorite. She almost didn’t watch it this season because he wasn’t on it.”

Mrs. O’Donnell was a skilled cook and baker, throwing a party for 40 people last summer at age 84. Her scones and Irish soda bread were popular items at bake sales at the Irish American Heritage Center. Known for her blueberry pie and blueberry kuchen, she also used her culinary skills to show compassion. Whenever a friend, relative or neighbor needed help, she was there with a meal and dessert.

“When someone was sick, she was the first one at the door,” her daughter said. “Stuffed shells with ricotta and wonderful tomato sauce and soup, and you’d be good for a week.”

When a friend’s daughter died unexpectedly, leaving behind three young sons, Mrs. O’Donnell stepped in not once or twice but consistently for more than a decade, delivering the boys her raisin bread and spaghetti sauce they particularly liked. The boys sent a letter to Mrs. O’Donnell last week remembering her generosity — and her cooking. It read: “The angels are happy they will get to try some.”

Mrs. O’Donnell, whose husband died in 2008, is survived by two other daughters, Eileen Vukelich and Sheila Nelson; a son, Michael O’Donnell; two sisters, Tessie Burke and Sara O’Grady; two brothers, Michael O’Grady and Father Jim O’Grady; and eight grandchildren, Elyse and James Vukelich, Sarah and Olivia O’Donnell; Bridget, Kevin and Sean Nelson and Mairead Rosati.

Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Cooney Funeral Home, 625 N. Busse Hwy., Park Ridge, with a funeral mass at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Paul of the Cross Church, 320 S. Washington, Park Ridge.