ESTERO, Fla. — Peggy Edith Peppler Daino was born in Harlesden, London England April 3, 1923 to her parents, Albert and Edith (née Fowler) Peppler. She passed from this life December 9, 2024. She married American Air Force Sergeant, Robert August Daino (Dec. 2015) on October 16, 1944 in London England during WWII. Their three children survive, Robert August Jr. of Texas, Randy Lee (Linda) and Sharon Patricia Daino of Florida, eight grandchildren, and 22 great-grandchildren.
Peggy’s family moved from Harlesden area of London to Wembley, across the tracks from the new Wembley Stadium in 1931. Her schooling was rigorous, passing her ‘exams’ at age 11 (at the time the near equivalent of USA’s college entrance exams), one of only 13 in her school to do so. Her passion for art studies led her to enter Harrow-on-the-Hill Art Institute (now Westminster University) at age 14, two years ahead of her age group. She graduated after 4 years and was employed at Sardison’s Wallpaper Co. as a designer for a year before the WWII bombing of London was so great they had to switch to camouflage manufacturing. She then interviewed at Heinz for an accounting position in an age when women were only employed as typists. She got the job as accounting director assistant thanks to her sharp math skills.
At age 16 WWII began while she was a third-year student. After school or employment hours she served as air raid warden throughout the war, two nights and 3 evenings per week, directing residents to safety during nightly bombings, keeping records of families displaced and building safety. Everything in life was rationed. She wrote, “I had four sweaters, but just to have something new to wear, I undid them. Then I knitted a different style sweater with the yarn”. Most nights were spent in a shelter after duty. “Bob (her eventual husband) took note of that when he met me. Even though they were hard times, I always found things to my liking” She liked to ballroom dance with her club, which led to her meeting her husband-to-be during his passes off the military base for R&R.
Following the war and her marriage, the happy couple set up housekeeping with his parents in Clarksburg, W.Va., a town very unlike London’s city life, eventually moving to their soon-to-be-beloved Mount Vernon, Ohio, in June 1948. She ran the Daino’s Greenhouse business from 1957 until a fire destroyed it in April 1976. Then Bob and Peg retired and began “snow-birding” to Estero Florida yearly, accompanying their parents during the parents’ declining years until 1992. Bob and Peg enjoyed their winter days in Sunny Grove Park, Estero, Florida. In 2006 they moved summer residence from Mount Vernon to Statesville, N.C., to be closer to some of their family.
She was a woman who acquired and excelled in so many talents: cultural activities of painting, stained glass, knitting and sewing; homemaking skills of cooking, baking, garden produce freezing and canning; business skills raising product from seed catalogue order through plant’s sale in the greenhouse; and fully engaged child rearing in school, scouts, hobbies and sports. The eventual loss of her hearing and declining vision must have frustrated her creative and social skills. Not being able to practice them might explain and justify her frustrations with her later years.
We who were blessed to have her in our lives for so many years and in so many ways, know there could be few like her. We mourn her loss, continue to love her in our memory, and revel in the experience that has been uniquely ours. See you on the other side Mom, grandma, great-grandma!
Friends may visit the family on Friday, December 20th, from 11am-12 noon, at the Flowers-Snyder Funeral Home with a service following beginning at 12 noon with Mr. Roger Marra officiating. Burial will take place in Memorial Gardens Cemetery.
To send the family a condolence online visit: www.snyderfuneralhomes.com
The Flowers-Snyder Funeral Home is honored to serve the family of Peggy Edith Peppler Daino.
Funeral Home: Flowers-Snyder Funeral Home
Website: snyderfuneralhomes.com