PEA RIDGE — Steady.
Dependable.
Never had a bad word to say about anybody.
“The quintessential Southern lady,” Mayor Jackie Crabtree said.
That’s how Peggy Hall’s was described Monday morning as family reminisced about her after learning of her death earlier that morning.
The neat, well-manicured farmstead on the north side of town replete with white red-roofed buildings has been a landmark for decades. The farm was the home of Col. Negel and Mrs. Peggy Hall for more than half a century. There, Col. Negel trained mules - and even a Brahma bull - to jump. An avid coon hunter, Hall was one of the originators of the annual Pea Ridge Mule Jump.
“Where do I start?” Mayor Jackie Crabtree said. “She was probably the quintessential Southern lady. She had one of the best hearts of anyone I’ve ever been around. She and Negel both had an undying love for thecommunity and they supported it in any way they could.
“She will truly be missed,” Crabtree said.
Mrs. Peggy, the widow of Col. Negel, presented the Negel Hall Memorial Award for years to those earning the highest points in the competition. Col. Negel Hall died Oct. 10, 1998.
Born in 1930 in Rogers, Peggy met her husband while working in southwest Missouri at a doctor’s office on Sugar Creek in the Roller Community.
Remembered as an excellent cook, Peggy Hall left a lasting impression on those who knew her.
“She enjoyed making her home nice,” Rick said.
“She had a good heart and a sweet spirit,” Jane Hall, her daughter-inlaw, said.
In 1958, the couple bought the farm on Arkansas Highway 94.
“He and my grandfather build every building on this place,” Rick recalled.
“She was right there with him,” the couple said, recalling that Peggy assisted her husband in everything, even milking when theystill ran a dairy.
While son Rick was young, Peggy stayed home. Later, she worked at the Dari Park in Pea Ridge. When Wal Mart opened, she was one of the first cashiers of the first Wal-Mart store and worked there for more than 40 years.
“I never heard her say a bad word about anybody,” Rick said.
“Dependable,” Rick said. “She sure took good care of me.”
Rick recently had surgery and it was shortly afterward visiting him before his surgery that Peggy became ill.
Peggy was a faithful member of a TOPS group which met in Garfield.
She always played cards with her sister and aunt after the TOPS meeting, Rick recalled.
“She never complained. No matter how bad she felt. She was a rock,”Rick said.
“She was a very good mother-inlaw,” Jane said.
Col. Negel and Mrs. Peggy had one son, Rick. Rick and Jane have a daughter, Libby, who has two children - Zane, 13, and Frankie, 2.
Her obituary is on page 3A.
News, Pages 1 on 01/26/2011