Peggy Ann Nance Lyle

Peggy Ann Nance Lyle was born on December 9, 1944 in Dallas, Texas and died May 31, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was the daughter of Mary Agnes Hartnett Nance and Sergeant William Rose Nance of the US Army Air Corps, then serving in the South Pacific during WWII. She was baptized with the name Margaret Ann at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Dallas, Texas by her cousin, Reverend Thomas Francis Schmucker, a Priest of the Congregation of the Missions of St. Vincent de Paul. Due to a clerical error at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas at the time of her birth, her name was mistakenly placed on her birth certificate as Peggy Ann instead of Margaret Ann – an error which was not discovered until 1968 when she applied for her birth certificate for a passport. Peggy Ann, and her mother, were welcomed into the Dallas home at 5822 Monticello Avenue of her maternal grandparents, Thomas Francis Hartnett and Agnes Kerrigan Hartnett, for the duration of World War II.

Peggy Ann graduated from Ursuline Academy Elementary School in 1959 and Ursuline Academy of Dallas High School in 1963. During high school, she was a member and officer of the Debate Club. She spent summers as a volunteer teaching the American Red Cross Junior Lifesaving Swim Course, and teaching swimming safety to pre-school children, at Tietze Park in Dallas, Texas. She also spent summers doing payroll and office for her Hartnett grandfather’s structural steel construction company. In 1967, she graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Her major concentration for her Bachelor Degree was in Economics and the Social Sciences. During college, she continued part time working for the Hartnett family business, and the Fondren Library at SMU. Peggy Ann served as an officer of the Newman Club at SMU for two years, and also served on the 1966 National Newman Congress Committee for the Convention that was held that year at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

Peggy Ann’s career began as an Assistant Buyer of Women’s Wear and Accessories in the Southwest Regional Office of Montgomery Ward in Dallas, Texas. Merchandise she bought in the Dallas market was shipped to Montgomery Ward stores nationwide. Peggy Ann was then recruited by JCPenney, and for the next decade held management positions in their Dallas Buying Office, Distribution Center in Arlington, Texas and in Marketing for the Southeast and Southwest Regions. Peggy Ann selected women’s fashion apparel from the Dallas, Miami, and New York markets for distribution to hundreds of JCPenney stores in 18 states and Puerto Rico – from Santa Fe, NM to San Juan, PR, and from Nebraska to North Carolina.

In 1977 Peggy Ann Nance married Texas A&M graduate and Vietnam veteran, USN Lt. Charles Stennis Lyle. Their only child, Karen Michelle Lyle, was born in Dallas, Texas in 1979. In 1980, the young family moved to Raleigh, NC.

In Raleigh, NC, Peggy Ann started a career as an independent business consultant and became active in community service. Some of her activities in the Raleigh community included serving stints as a docent for both the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Joel Lane Museum House, as a Precinct Official for the Wake County Board of Elections, as an Executive Board Member for the United Nations Association of Wake County, as a member of The League of Women Voters of Wake County and as a Supporter of the SPCA of Wake County. She was always interested in current events, and domestic and foreign policy and participated annually in the Foreign Policy Associations' Great Decisions.

Having a passion for Philanthropy, Peggy Ann focused on creating a Legacy for addressing Environmental and Humanitarian issues. In keeping with her goal of supporting the Environment, Peggy Ann became a Legacy Member of The Sierra Club Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and The Nature Conservancy. Peggy Ann also became a Legacy Member of the United States Fund for UNICEF, Humane Society of the United States, The Fund for Animals’ Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch and Doris Day Equine Center in Murchison, Texas, and Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights, NY to support the extraordinary Humanitarian work for these organizations.

With a keen interest in lifelong learning, Peggy Ann was a member of North Carolina University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. She also had a lifelong love of travel, and appreciated the opportunities she has to explore North America and more than seventeen European countries from 1968 to 2016. As she prepared for her travels, she would research the history, and current status of these destinations.

Peggy Ann Nance Lyle was buried at the Historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, NC beside her beloved husband, Charles Stennis Lyle.

Surviving family of Peggy Ann are: daughter, Karen Michelle Lyle Gillespie, of Raleigh, NC, brother, Lt. Col. (Ret. USAF) William Thomas Nance, of Copperas Cove, Texas, sister, Leigh Rose Nance Moffett, of Spring Hill, TN, cousins, Debra Ann DeMuth of Dallas, Texas, and William Thomas DeMuth of Plano, Texas, Clare Goulding Garlic of Montgomery, Texas, Marian Baumbach Jacq, of Whitefish Bay, WI, Rosemary Poole-Carter of East Lansing, Michigan, sister-in-law, Glynda Ann Lyle Hairston of Owasso, Oklahoma, and the spouses and families of these relatives.

Peggy Ann requested that family and friends inclined to make memorial gifts, please direct these gifts to their own favorite charity, of to the United States Fund for UNICEF, or the Humane Society of the United States.