Margaret Fairweather

Margaret Fairweather, known to everyone as Peggy, finished nursing school in Seattle in the spring of 1950. Within months she had volunteered for the Navy Nurse Corps and was on her way to the Pacific. She served aboard the hospital ship USS Repose off the coast of Korea, caring for wounded Marines and soldiers brought straight from the front.

Peggy worked long shifts in crowded wards and became known for her steady hands and her habit of learning every patient's hometown. She wrote hundreds of letters home on behalf of young men who could not hold a pen. Many of those families later wrote back to thank her, and she kept every letter in a shoebox for the rest of her life.

After her service Peggy returned to Washington and spent forty years as a nurse and later a nursing supervisor at a hospital in Everett. She trained generations of young nurses and was famous for her rule that every patient got a real conversation, not just a chart check. She married Thomas Fairweather in 1957 and together they raised two daughters.

Peggy loved gardening, crossword puzzles, and the Seattle Mariners, in roughly that order. She passed in February 2015 at the age of eighty six. Her daughters describe her as the kindest and toughest person they have ever known, and they hope the stories shared here will help others know her too.