Peggi Anderson Randolph

The beautiful & unstoppable Peggi Eve Anderson Randolph, an only child called affectionately by her dad “Little Peggi Diddle”, was born on February 12, 1929 in DEEE-troit, Michigan. Her credo was “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” & she exemplified such in every facet of her life! Peggi could not be controlled or contained. She was an independent live wire in constant motion with endless plans & goals! She shared Honest Abe’s birth month & day (not the same year!) & always boasted that she was a Lincoln baby, missing being a Valentine heart baby by two days. (Interesting that she had a vast heart collection for many years tho!) Sadly, Peggi took her angel wings very peacefully while holding her daughter’s hand & in the presence of her son-in-law Marcel, at the age of 92, on the morning of Monday, November 22, 2021 @ Maile Aloha assisted living residence in the Clairemont area of San Diego, California, after a slow but steady decline for the last 10 years, accelerating in the last 3.

She is predeceased by her ex-husband Gabriel Howard Randolph, mother Dorothy Lee Haley Anderson, father James Chapman Anderson as well as her doting dachshunds over many years - Penelope 67, Frida Kahlo & most recently Sasha. (Also, her treasured family poodle, Brownie, that sadly disappeared in the mid 80’s). Peggi’s family moved her from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she thrived at Atria Vista del Rio retirement community for several years, to join them in San Diego, CA in August 2017. Moving back to sea level worked wonders for her oxygen levels & she was able to abandon her oxygen machine she needed for several years in the higher altitudes of New Mexico.

Peggi leaves behind her favored (smile!), loving, doting, attached-at-the-hip daughter Jill Randolph-Sikking, her handsome (so she said again just prior to her demise) son-in-law Marcel Sikking, her beautiful granddaughter Saskia who was her total pride & joy and her Goddaughters Monique Birault & Rochelle Randolph. Also Dr. John Tyson (Albuquerque/Taos, New Mexico) who was the love of her life in her more recent history, as well as his children Kersti (Taos, NM), Briget (Cedar City, Utah) & Jono (Erie, Colorado), whom she was very close to. Further, her very close friend Mary Beth Brennan-Wilkerson (Albuquerque, New Mexico) who was like a 2nd daughter to her, and her daughters Isabella & Nina whom she considered granddaughters. Additionally, cousins Diane Proctor Reeder, Lauri Kisner & Pat Barrington of Detroit, Michigan & Rose Proctor Nance of Charleston, South Carolina.

Peggi had an end-of-life plan which included cremation plans. Cremation date: December 17, 2021. Her family plans to hold her ashes until Spring 2022 at which time they plan to have them interred at the plot site of her former husband Gabriel Randolph & next to her parents gravesite @ the beautiful Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, a plan that was laid out in the late 1950’s by she, her husband Gabe & her parents purchasing the 2 double plots from a travelling door-to-door salesman who knocked on the door of their 28th Street duplex. An incredible plan with forethought according to her daughter Jill. An all-out Celebration of Life with family & friends is planned to follow at that time. Location later to be announced.

Peggi described herself in the category “what she likes to do”: “Loving to see people at their best…one to one, parties, lectures, causes, little theatre & church…explore ethnic food, culture & nature…and then there’s LOVE! Have done lots of travel from TJ to Moscow. Still get excited going to the backyard. Love exploring LA as an international city. Photography (alone), jogging, reading, sewing & gardening. Wish to do travel in China, river raft, sail the Greek Isles, write a funny book about singles, dance more, more music, fly, hot air ballooning. I don’t do mini-interests in spectator sports, try not to procrastinate, make assumptions, change people one iota, have verbal run-on-at-the-mouth, ho-hum to Las Vegas/country western & pomposity, so there!”

In the category of “who am I” she says: “Aloha! That’s what you’ll hear on my answering machine, plus a quote. I love quotations! They’re food for me soul! Can I quote you?” Further: “I am a bubbling brown sugar woman on the surface – a rich deep brew underneath. Love flair, style and you. Am sometimes mysterious??? Live in a big warm home full of books, flowers, music and peace. Think my friends/daughter/dad are the jewels in my crown. What do I want from life? To be aware of the whole show. We make our own lives but sharing is great! Love tradition and making new ones. Words I like: seductive, zest, wonderful & yummy! “

Peggi was no stranger to moving/changing domiciles in several cities when growing up. Her parents thrived on changing residences often within those cities. Always upward bound. She grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where they moved from Detroit at the tender age of 2. They were an adventurous family that stuck together. Many summers spent in Birmingham, Alabama with her paternal grandparents & going back to Detroit to visit family often. Peggi graduated from North High School in Columbus & later attended Ohio State in 1948-1949 where she got her Life Teaching Credential & Librarianship Credential, as well as a secondary credential in English. Prior to attending Ohio State, she spent one year working at a dept store in New York with best friend Shirley before deciding to move to Hollywood to seek fame, fortune & the California sun. She & her family were constantly hearing stories about how beautiful it was. She dreamed of the palm trees. Peggi attended Los Angeles City College (1949-1950), where she met Gabriel Howard Randolph, her husband-to-be, who was on the track & field and basketball teams, as well as forever family friends Janice & Tanis Fortier, Mary Alice Collier, Harriet & Anita Daniels, Ruby Smoak & Lovie Lee, who were all later “Aunties” to her daughter Jill. She received her BA from Los Angeles State College (1950-1952). She was so impressed with Hollywood she got her parents to move to sunny California after about 1 year. No turning back, after they were all in paradise with no more muggy summers & chilly winters. Her father Chappie, an early entrepreneur having had several businesses in Columbus, including owning/running a boarding house, worked a variety of jobs & later invested well in residential & commercial properties around the USC area of Los Angeles. Her mother Dorothy (Dot) was an incredible homemaker, taking great pride in keeping a beautiful home, the last one with a pool, which became the official party house.

Peggi married Gabriel on August 26, 1951 in a ceremony at the home of her parents, a duplex near USC where her parents lived upstairs & the newlyweds lived downstairs. They drove to Tijuana, Mexico for their honeymoon. They looked like Hollywood stars from the photos left behind of that trip. Daughter Jill Elizabeth was born May 24, 1957. When she was two they purchased a house in the View Park/Windsor Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. Peggi loved her first house. It had a view from the top floor all over Los Angeles & a backyard that went down six levels with all kinds of vegetation including many fruit bearing trees. Resident opossum were plentiful. Many of Jill’s birthday were celebrated there.

Peggi loved learning & keeping her education current. Years later she decided to further her education. From 1967-1970 she attended Library School @ University of Southern California (USC). In January 1975, she enrolled in Master’s Program in Multi-Cultural Education at Pepperdine University. In April 1976 she was awarded her MA.

Peggi’s teaching experience was vast! Title I Library Coordinator for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) (1972-1983). Teacher/Librarian @ Vermont Avenue Elementary School & Nevin Avenue Elementary School (1968-1972). Teacher @ Carson Street Elementary School (1st teaching job), Delores Street Elementary School, Normandie Avenue Elementary School & Carthay Center Elementary School (1952-1967).

Her Special Education interests were designing strategies for implementing Multi-Cultural Education, Career Education & Title IX, as components of human development through the utilization of library materials. Reading, comprehension & writing skills developed through literary models. Parent/Child Educational Program to promote reading through utilization of library resources. Retirement from LAUSD in June 1983 followed by a leap to run the library @ Horace Mann Middle School in Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD).

Then came the big relocation in 1989 to Albuquerque, New Mexico to get away from the crazier & more & more crowded city Los Angeles was becoming. Over the years she made a few visits to her favorite cousin Pearl who had moved from New York to Albuquerque in the 1970’s. She found herself falling in love with the beautiful views of the Sandia mountains, the desertscapes & gorgeous sunsets of the Southwest, not to mention the slower lifestyle & very kind & friendly people who waved at you when you drove through certain neighborhoods. So charming! She made the decision to also make the big move to leave LALALAND behind her. Initially she stayed with a friend of cousin Pearl’s while she waited for her house to be built. She went back to her familiar place taking a position as a librarian for Stapleton Elementary School within the Rio Rancho Public School system just outside of Albuquerque. In her later years, circa 2004 (just after her granddaughter Saskia was born) she changed over to the Albuquerque Public School (APS) system & was a librarian at Whittier Elementary School & a substitute teacher. She once again made a big impact on her students using her bubbly personality to instill a love of reading in them. She retired once again when she was 80 years old in the Summer of 2009.

After yet another & final retirement she did not retire from life and was endlessly busy writing numerous short stories. She was up most mornings @ 4am at her computer typing away before she even had her first cup of coffee. She always said there was something about the quiet morning hours that got her creative juices flowing. Most days she would do a small meditation before beginning. She was always a voracious reader & this pattern continued. Her daughter Jill recalls her juggling the reading of 4-5 books simultaneously ever since she could remember.

During her years in Albuquerque she made a few moves & was very happy in what she called “The River House” which overlooked a portion of the Rio Grande mostly until a house was built next to hers with a humongous blue roof which partially obstructed her view. Mom Peggi was never thrilled about that to say the least. (Smile!) During that period in The River House she rented one or two bedrooms to students mostly from University of New Mexico. At one point there was a young woman called Mary Beth who rented a room while doing her residency to become a medical doctor. She became like a 2nd daughter to Peggi over the years while her own daughter was living in Los Angeles, then Brussels, Belgium & The Netherlands & til this day is a close family friend. Peggi also met the love of her later life, Dr. John Tyson & eventually the two cohabitated at his home, while she maintained The River House as a rental. These two had non-stop fun and adventures over a period of many years. Their travels included many cities in New Mexico, as well as Mexico, National Park tour by train & many cities throughout Europe. They did a lot of hiking & biking in various places & were thrilled to attend Jill’s church wedding in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on October 31, 1998, including further visits beyond the wedding. Highlights of their time together include attending the Santa Fe Opera @ Santa Fe, New Mexico where they were Season ticket holders. They loved dancing the night away at the party immediately following the performance. OK, at least once they caught some zzzzzzz’s during one operatic performance while Jill & her husband Mars were attending with them! Shhhh! They also enjoyed walking every early Saturday morning with the Rio Grande Walking Group on the ditch along the bosque followed by going out to breakfast with the group. They were also in a bike club at some point. Another thrill was Jill & Mars tracking them down on a very rugged & adventurous trip in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico to let them know that they were grandparents to a little baby girl named Saskia born on July 12, 2004!

Also in Albuquerque, Peggi became a member of Rainbow Artists, an award-winning women’s collective established in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1990 that supports, promotes, and encourages women artists. They had regular showings & Peggi created many gorgeous works of art, namely shadow boxes. Her daughters’ favorite piece is “Hail Mammy Full of Grace” which she gifted to one of her best friends, as well as a Josephine Baker piece that she gifted to Jill. Other works were sold at various showings she participated in.

Peggi’s first & foremost life passions were travel & adventure. Her travels included (but were not limited to): Argentina, Austria, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica (she reported monkeys watching her shower in the hotel through lengthy private bathroom window in the middle of the rainforest), Cuba, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay. In the 1960’s & 1970’s she thrived on presenting the vast amount of photographs she took during her travels in the form of side shows for family friends. She would sent out formal invitations with at least one sample of her photography from whatever country she had just traveled two. She usually did at least two shows per year. She would do buffet style dinner for her guests. She was also a part of an international visitors group for people visiting Los Angeles from various countries. She would invite them over for dinner and chat so they could experience how an American family lives life.

She also had the pleasure of exploring numerous cities in the United States. New York City was one of her all-time favorites. She worked briefly at a dept store there with her best friend Shirley after high school in Columbus & visited her Godmother Aunt Golda Moody there almost every year. She introduced her daughter Jill to The Big Apple when she was 7 years old with the usual NYC fare: Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Park Plaza Hotel for tea, Empire State bldg, Statue of Liberty, United Nations, Central Park, FAO Schwartz toy store, Chock Full ‘O Nuts! She loved to kick up her heels to Liza Minnelli’s “New York, New York” & considered that her signature song. Jill played it for her many times as she started to decline over the last few months of her life. Her daughter Jill was her travel partner to: Russia, Greece, Italy, England, Germany, France, Czech Republic, West Africa & more.

She took Jill to Europe at the age of 8 along with her dad Chappie & family friend Jean & her son Peter. They toured London, Paris, Munich, Zugspitze, Lucerne, Rome & Venice at that time with Peggi as guide since she had been before. She was known to stay in Belgium & The Netherlands for months at a time when her daughter Jill was living in those countries. She & her daughter planned Jill’s wedding in Amsterdam via email while she was living in Albuquerque & Jill in Brussels. She thrived on taking “side-trips” from there (mostly to see art shows), including but not limited to Ankara, Turkey with her beloved John. In March 2012, on her last visit to Jill & Mars in Hoeilaart, Belgium, she went off via train to London for the David Hockney (always one of her faves with her beloved doxies!) exhibit. This was the trip she got totally stuck in London, unable to return to us in Belgium due to overstaying her 3 month visa. We receive an email & a facebook message from her: “Jill, please contact me right away! I am still in London! They would not allow me to come back to Brussels because I overstayed my visa by 1 month! I’m staying @ The Clarendon Hotel @ Blackheath Village! Going to Belgian Embassy tomorrow to try to extend visa. This is a horrible experience!” So no wonder she didn’t get off of the train back in Brussels when our friends went to pick her up @ Gare du Midi train station! All of us had totally lost track of time, obviously! She ended up not being able to get a visa to return to Brussels & she had to get a flight out of London to return to Albuquerque, USA! The part of the story that she was not so eager to share with us is that upon train departure to London she was told that she may not be able to return to Brussels. Info that she decided to ignore because she wanted to see that David Hockney soooo bad! Then we realized we had witnessed the convo there on the platform between she & the train guy on her departure & that was the big talk that she didn’t let on about at the time! Bad little mommy!

At one point, circa early 1970’s, aside from her full-time teaching job, she worked some evenings & weekends making travel arrangements for clients @ Anderson Travel Agency in the Crenshaw District across from Crenshaw Shopping Center. She was already an avid traveler & had travelled far & wide but this experience afforded her the opportunity to do gratis Familiarization Trips (aka Fam Trips) courtesy of the agency to explore travel destinations for several days to be able to advise her clients better on their travels. One of these trips was sailing with a catamaran crew around the Hawaiian Islands for one week including all meals prepared on board as well as sleeping.

One of Peggi’s greatest accomplishments in life was writing & self-publishing her book “Josephine’s Incredible Shoe & The Blackpearls” in April 2013. It took her circa 20 years to write with the various research & time constraints involved. (She was still substitute teaching for Albuquerque Public Schools at the time.) The concept is based on the fact that her father (prior to even meeting her mother-to-be) had a fling with Josephine Baker circa 1922 when she & her dance troupe performed at Morehouse College where he was a student & she left her beautiful shoe behind. Her research took she & her daughter on a wild & wonderful road trip throughout Southwest France. Her daughter Jill was living in Brussels so she visited & the two made the incredibly beautiful drive & discover in the Summer of 1995. The primary focus was to visit & gather information @ Josephine Baker’s Renaissance castle Château des Milandes in the Périgord Noir region, part of which was turned into a museum. Just lingering on the grounds absorbing the energy & essence of Josephine Baker herself was quite scintillating. Funny note: Upon their return to Brussels daughter Jill expressed that the two of them should collaborate on a book called “A Guide to The Bathrooms of Southwest France” spurred on by the act of having to find & use many of them while roadtripping! Lol! What Peggi said about her book: “My novel sweeps the reader from the Jazz Age into the Eighties as the story of an engaging black couple evolves. Tally & Chat Blackpearl & their heirs move from a good life to a better one. Is their desire to reach success caused by wit & perseverance or is their talisman, a gorgeous shoe, responsible? The shoe may have belonged to a scintillating black star, Josephine Baker, who wowed Paris in the Twenties and with whom Chat Blackpearl had a brief fling. The rhythm of this story never misses a beat as we travel with The Blackpearls from a black college in the Ohio cornfields, through the South and on to World War II Los Angeles via the Panama Canal. The perils and joys of being black in modern America are shared in this upbeat story of REACH. (Footnote #1 from daughter Jill: I never knew how my mom totally came up with the title for her book but I just read that “The Black Pearl” was Jo Baker’s nickname at some point. In her book, The Blackpearls =The Andersons, her father & mother & paternal side of her family.) (Footnote #2 from daughter Jill: Very sadly & unbelievably, due to the ravages of dementia over the last few years. My mom didn’t remember writing her book nor our research & discover road trip all over Southwest France, in addition to any & all details, real or imagined, of her long & beautiful life. This was truly mind-boggling for me as the writing of this book was the prime focus & very life breath of her existence for so many years.) (Footnote #3: Peggi won 1st Place for her novel in the category of Mainstream or Literary Novel in The SouthWest Writers annual writing contest in Fall 2009 for her book “Josephine’s Incredible Shoe & The Blackpearls”. Her novel was judged by Diana Finch of The Diana Finch Literary Agency in New York City. Jill was present for her acceptance of this award @ The Southwest Writers Enchanting Winners Awards Banquet @ 1.00pm Saturday-September 19, 2009 @ the Albuquerque Marriott Hotel, 2101 Louisiana Blvd NE.

Link to Facebook page for her book: https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackpearls

Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Josephines-Incredible-Shoe-Blackpearls-1/dp/1477570152?fbclid=IwAR1-gQbTjwBWDObUigKZoSvW6bEgofm6kw9Jf13N59Uzo_sRcLt2y8FF7L4#reader_1477570152

Further highlights of Peggi’s life:

- Planning her daughter Jill’s wedding to Marcel, her Dutch husband-to-be, in Amsterdam almost entirely via email while she was in Albuquerque & Jill was working @ Options Eurocongress (professional medical conference organizers) in Brussels. It was so amazing that it came together so beautifully with all of the miles in between them with all the back & forth wedding planning entails. Peggi travelled to Brussels to work on further details including selecting Jill’s wedding dress @ a beautiful East Indian shop, Santosh & Santosh on a quaint square Place du Chatelain, that Jill passed almost daily walking to work. Together they made a trip to Paris, where Jill’s best friend Claudine lived, to look for wedding shoes & veil and a visit to Amsterdam to locate a venue for the wedding party. The Sea Palace floating Chinese resto on Het Ij (harbor) became the chosen venue. They had also looked at having it on a smaller houseboat vessel but they almost got seasick just touring it. The two walked til they dropped in both cities & had the time of their lives absorbing the energy of life on the streets of Paris & Amsterdam, eating at quaint restos, sipping coffee & indulging in bakery treats. Her daughter Jill still has every email containing all the planning details. Peggi made certain that her daughter had the best wedding possible & thrived on every moment of doing so.

- Peggi’s short story “Sun Child” was published in L.A. Style magazine on August 20, 1983. She gave daughter Jill much credit for her success because she had pushed for her to approach this hot publication.

- Peggi was able to get her colorful handmade quilted vests into a designer clothing shoppe on Santa Fe Plaza one Winter when Jill was visiting her from Brussels. She said that her daughter was again her good luck charm.

- Peggi was selected by New Mexico filmmaker Pamela Johnson to play the part of Aunt Minnie in her short film entry “Talk Me To Death” for Albuquerque Duke City Shootout 2006. Received Audience Award & Best Editing. The main characters cell phone went off in his coffin at the end of the film. So well done! Peggi loved every moment of acting in this film! She had lots of practice since she was born being a real live kkkkstar of everyday life! Lol!

- On a visit to New York City with Jill in Fall 1983 to play as well as visit her Godmother Aunt Golda & Aunt Bette, the two were having so much fun gallavanting in the city they had to make up a story to Aunt Golda as to why they’d be late for dinner at her place out in St. Albans/Jamaica, which resulted in eating two dinners…one at a great NYC resto & then again @ Aunt Golda’s all the while acting as if they hadn’t eaten & all the while grinning like Cheshire cats & Aunt Golda looking at them like she knew something was going on! Lol!

- Email from Peggi from Brussels, Belgium to her family/friends around the world/December 2011: “Happy Holidays! Am just getting settled here in Hoeilaart, Belgium…an absolutely charming Flemish town minutes away from the city of Brussels. It is wonderful to be with JillMarsSaskia, they are a great unit, and I am the proud tag-a-long. Jill seems to have taken on the wanderlust quality of the Anderson-Haley side of her heritage and Mars seems to have the same inclinations. Saskia asked Jill just the other day…So mom, are we finally settled? I could have asked that same question dozens of times as I was growing up between three cities.

- Peggi loved every residence that she lived in but one of her faves was the Hollywood Hills condo she purchased in the mid 80’s. Friends would gather at her place in the Summer & walk across the street/under the Hollywood Freeway to attend concerts at The Hollywood Bowl. She loved taking walks behind her condo all through the Hollywood Hills. Daughter Jill lived there briefly while she worked @ KROQ in Burbank. Her full list of residences after moving to LA in 1949: 28th Street (near USC), Northland Drive (View Park/Baldwin Hills), Coco Avenue (The Jungle/Crenshaw District), Sycamore Avenue (mid-Wilshire), Beverly Glen (West LA), 3rd Avenue (Pico/Crenshaw), Caheunga Blvd West (Hollywood Hills), New Mexico house #1 (West Side), New Mexico house #2 (West Bluff), Cascade Place NW (The River House), Solano Drive (Ridgecrest), Rodriguez Road (Santa Fe), Indian School Road NW (Atria Vista del Rio Retirement Community), College Park (Atria San Diego Retirement Community), Wesley Palms Retirement Community (briefly), Mission Hills Nursing Home (Mission Hills), and last but not least Maile Aloha senior home (Clairemont/San Diego). Whew! And that does not include a multitude of residences while when was growing up in Detroit & Columbus & Birmingham!

- Peggi thrived on art & she thoroughly enjoyed being a docent at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for several years in the 1980’s. The training was intense & she learned more & more in-depth about art & the art world. She had her little group of docent friends she would run around LA with even outside of volunteering. Her daughter Jill would meet her from time-to-time @ the museum restaurant to join she & the ladies for lunch.

- Circa 2009 Peggi rented a casita (little house) on a hilltop in Santa Fe, walking distance from all the action of Santa Fe Plaza. It was owned by her “step-daughter”. There she had the further time of her life dining in quaint restos, museum hopping at the many great museums of Santa Fe & exploring the hills of Santa Fe, sometimes on foot. She loved it so much that at one time she wanted her ashes to be scattered along the river there but several years ago she changed her mind.

- Peggi, Gabriel & Jill attended three consecutive Olympic Games as a family: Mexico 1968, Munich 1972 & Montreal 1976. Peggi was always the documentarian on these adventures. She later volunteered @ the 1984 Olympic Games @ Los Angeles.

- In the 1980’s Peggi loved to go dancing with daughter Jill & her friends at various Hollywood discos. On one excursion she partied it up on the floating dance floor at Circus Disco (which was known as a gay disco) with Jill & her friends to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”! Jill’s friends just loved her to pieces!

Peggi was a meditator from somewhere in the 1980’s. She was very interested in New Thought religion such as Unity/Science of Mind, also Eastern thought. She studied meditation @ the Zen Center in Los Angeles for many years under the guide of Shinzen Young, who she considered to be her guru. She attended numerous meditation retreats at the center, as well as other meditation centers in various cities. She also “grew up” in The Church of Religious Science/Science of Mind on West 6th Street in Los Angeles, as did her mother Dorothy…the credo there being: “We believe in the incarnation of the Spirit in all people and that all people are incarnations of the One Spirit.” She & her mother bought Jill a seat in that spiritual institution with her name on it.

This speech that Peggi wrote & delivered @ her Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) retirement ceremony @ Los Angeles Sports Arena event center circa June 1983 kind of sums up the kind of out-of-the-box teacher that she was for 35 years in that school district & gives definite insight into the great quality of life she created for herself in everything she did. Her daughter was there for this speech & recalls her colleagues getting such a kick out of it.

As read by her Prinicpal JoAnn: “The other day when you called to ask for “some words” I told you just to make up something. But on 2nd thought, I decided to make up my own. After all, when does a new writer pass up a chance to hear something they’ve written. This is not to be an obituary, as I’ve told friends, I retired from a job, not from life. So we’ll skip the statistics. I’d rather share with you a speck of what it’s been like for me during these last 3 decades of my life spent with LA Unified School District. First, I was lucky enough to have the best of 2 worlds. I’m very aware & appreciative of the security of this bureaucratic system. Being a depression baby, my parents were as proud as punch that their kid was going to have a regular job…and a teacher too? Wow! Believe me, there weren’t all that many black teachers in LA when I started. However, appreciating security was not enough for me, so in order to keep fungus off the brain, I moved about a lot. I was involved with kids from K to 12 & I loved it! I taught tow-headed kids from Oklahoma first, some of whom had to have discreet notes sent to mama that shoes must be worn in California schools. They were real little sweeties & when my close friends didn’t find the picture of my class extraordinary, I was really wounded. I taught inner city kids who wound up at Yale & a few in jail. I hope they used the library in both places. I taught special training kids who were very wise. I taught Jews from Bombay. I worked as Librarian in the golden ghetto, Beverly Hills. I worked a Summer in East LA where I almost felt I needed a passport. I went to library school @ USC. They were really good at teaching book-stamping. That still seems to be some folks idea of what we do. Try the Graduate Program & I’ll help you mop up blood, sweat & tears. All worth it, by the way. I worked in a very special library job bringing literature & folklore to young people. I used to be embarrassed to take the money it was so much fun. Later, a trio of us became coordinators of that special program. We worked our bleep bleeps off but it was exciting! If it had been up to Marilyn Robertson & I, librarians would’ve taken over the world. Don’t worry, we’ll organize in eternity. My daughter Jill asked me the other day if there was a hidden insanity in our family. It didn’t take a whole lot of thought to come up with a prideful “sure”. Did you think I was the only one? I am convinced that all good teachers are as mad as hatters. They are very secure in their insanity. After all to think with certainty in this world that you can effect the lives of others, in some way that is good, when there is every evidence to the contrary, is beyond all reason. In my 3 years @ Manual Arts High School I witnessed a lot of brilliant insanity. First there was my principal Johnny Beidleman who thought she could get me organized. Ha! And there are other examples of people I watched very carefully. I tried to warn them but they were beyond the veil. Utterly spaced. Take Lois Hunter who had the audacity to think she could teach me to dance. And Jo Zarro, you’re going to collect what to take kids to Washington? Mrs. Curtis, poor dear, stop the madness, give up the SAT, De Bono, Shakespeare here? Jo Graham cut out all this liveliness. Teachers are supposed to be dull & ugly. Frank Zagara, cleaning graffiti on Saturday? Really now! Mrs. Moore, high standards? You gotta be jokin’! Susan Hayward’s double, she knows who she is, stop giggling. It’s not funny! Mr. Greathouse, what’s all this stuff? Kids would think! Mc Indoe, beautify the campus? You can’t be for real! Well, the list could go on, but the above people are all hopelessly insane & I hope they stick with it! And as for me, what’s up? Well, I’m just crazy enough to think I’m a writer. I have fooled a couple of writing teachers @ UCLA into thinking that’s true. And whoever said being a houseperson is boring? I love it! And there’s always travel and my garden, and people I love, especially my father & daughter Jill. And when all else fails, I’ll count my money. Love you all! Keep steppin’ & as my license plate says…!”

Poem written by Peggi Eve Anderson on the occasion of her 80th year (February 12, 2009) for her daughter Jill & for those with whom she has shared a bit or more of love:

Love is not compact.

Not to be squeezed out like Pepsodent.

It travels with the stealth of clouds.

Is the keep and lightness of moss on stone.

At times like a kid under the couch waiting to be found,

Rests often in the soft change of Sasha’s eyes.

Epidemic.

Always constant.

Present as morning light, kissing us awake.

(Sasha was her beloved last Dachshund!)

And last but not least, a final quotation for one Peggi Diddle who loved quotations:

There she goes! Here she comes! And that is dying. – Henry van Dyke

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.merkleymitchell.com for the Randolph family.