Margaret “Peggy” Coogan Stroth (March 16, 1931 – July 11, 2019)

She went on to graduate as a Registered Nurse from South Buffalo Mercy Hospital’s School of Nursing in 1951. After nursing school, Peggy worked as a beloved Labor and Delivery nurse at Mercy Hospital as well as the Buffalo General Hospital. She then accepted a position at Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco where she cared for injured Korean War veterans.

During a holiday trip home to Dunkirk, Peggy met a handsome young electrical engineer, Norm Stroth, who had just moved to town and was considered Dunkirk’s most eligible bachelor.

Peggy and Norm Stroth married in 1956 and moved to Buffalo, New York, where Peggy resumed her work as a Labor and Delivery R.N. at the Buffalo General Hospital and Norm worked for Electric Controller and Manufacturing Company (EC&M). In 1958, Peg and Norm moved to East Aurora, New York, where they raised their seven children, residing first at 21 Castle Hill Road and then in the 150 year old farmhouse that they moved to 1933 Sweet Road, which became their warm and happy family home for thirty years.

In addition to raising their children, Peggy continued her career as an OB/GYN Nurse and began working for the Aurora Medical Group. As “Natural Childbirth” became popular in the 1970’s, Peggy taught Lamaze childbirth classes for the Aurora Medical Group, and helped hundreds of couples deliver healthy babies using the new childbirth method in which fathers were hands on, and heavily medicating mothers during delivery was hands off. Peggy became well-known around East Aurora for her encouragement and inclusive, common-sense approach to childbirth, and for years to come, she ran into grateful couples everywhere who would update her on her “Lamaze babies,” the eldest of whom will be 50 next year! Peggy later conducted thermography breast cancer screening for the Aurora Medical Group, and made rounds at Sisters’ Hospital, visiting and consulting with new mothers. During these years, Peggy also worked as a school nurse at the East Aurora High School, where she could keep a watchful eye on her children. Peggy retired from the Aurora Medical Group in 1984.

Through the years, Peggy used her nursing background to help care for family and friends in need in Western New York. She found that many of these needs related to medical issues later in their lives, and services were lacking in the Southtowns. After retiring from the Aurora Medical Group, Peggy began volunteering as an intake nurse for Aurora-Wales Hospice, which she founded along with fellow East Aurora residents. Under their leadership and a major fundraising campaign, the local hospice joined Hospice Buffalo, and full hospice services for the Southtowns began.

Peggy herself was a two-time breast cancer survivor, and in addition to her commitment to Hospice, she helped found a local chapter of the “Bosom Buddies” support group for breast cancer survivors. She also volunteered to be a participant in Harvard Medical School’s Nurses’ Health Study for Breast Cancer Research, in an effort to do her part toward understanding and ending the disease.

Peggy was a devout Catholic, and her devotion to the Church was unwavering throughout the years. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, she and Norm welcomed many seminarians from St. John Vianney Seminary (later Christ the King) into their home for family dinners, chats by the fireplace, discussions of current events, and respite from their rigorous academic schedules. The resulting lifelong friendships with these former seminarians and priests brought Peggy tremendous joy. Peggy and Norm were members of Immaculate Conception Church in East Aurora, which they attended with their children. Peg later became a Eucharistic Minister there, as well as at St. George’s Church in West Falls. Peggy and Norm had many friends in East Aurora and were very active members of their community. They enjoyed many local family events through the years, as well as their “Beefeater” dinner group and dinner dances, where their magic on the dance floor was as enjoyable to watch as the fun and laughter they shared. Peggy was involved in various committees for the Village of East Aurora, was on the Board of the East Aurora Nursery School and was a Brownie troop leader. She also volunteered for a number of charities, including the American Heart Association. Norm and Peg loved to spend time with their children, never missing an athletic event in which their kids competed, a concert in which they played, a school play or assembly in which they participated, or an honors assembly at which they were recognized. She had tremendous pride in each of their accomplishments as they went on to successful careers, all thanks to Peg and Norm’s sacrifices, encouragement and love. Peggy humbly (and quite inaccurately!) said, when interviewed by the East Aurora Advertiser in their 2008 “Spotlight On Peg Stroth” article, “I’m not famous for anything — just our children and my husband.”

Peggy was known for her bright smile and her infectious laugh. She was admired by all for her warmth, her kindness, her humility, her compassion and caring for every person she encountered, her kind and gentle manner, her Irish sense of humor, and especially her love for and dedication to her family. She was a devoted and loving wife, mother, mother-in-law and grand-mother, a daughter who cared tirelessly for her parents, an aunt whom everyone loved, and a loyal and supportive sister. Everyone enjoyed being in her presence, and in her eyes, everyone was special. She was a dear friend to all. Peggy will be dearly missed.

Surviving Peggy are her children, Lauren Stroth Aloi (Bob), Leslie Stroth Wickham (Landon), Timothy Stroth (Denise Litz), Thomas Stroth (Theresa), David Stroth (Kate), Philip Stroth, Mary Stroth Hodge (Chris); her grandchildren Peter, Betsy, Katie, Sam, T.J., Ella, Isabel, Connor, Heyward, Maggie and C.C.; her sister Rae Cassidy and brother Jack Coogan; her brothers in law Walt Lyons and Dave Forney, her sister in law Lois Stroth; and 41 nieces and nephews.

Peg was predeceased by her husband Norman in 2016, her sisters Jane Foley, Mary Ann Holzwarth, Kathy Lyons and Susie Forney, and her parents, John and Margaret Coogan.

Visitation will be Monday, July 15, 2019, from 3-7 p.m. at the Kenneth Howe Funeral Home, 60 Maple Street, East Aurora, NY. There will be a Mass of Christian Burial on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 at Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, 520 Oakwood Ave, East Aurora, NY. Please assemble at the church.

Donations in Peggy’s name may be made to Hospice Buffalo, Medlaw Cancer Partnership of Western New York, or Breast Cancer Network of Western New York.