Margaret “Peggy” Sturgis Lescure left this life on April 19, 2021, with her family by her bedside.  Peggy was 90 years young.

Peggy was an indomitable generous spirit with a keen intelligence and wit. She was born on July 5, 1930 at home in the tiny town of Snow Hill, on the eastern shore of Maryland, and she credits her brain power to having eaten oysters for dinner every night as a child because there was scant other protein to be had during the Depression. She went through high school in two years, heading to college at 16 where she met the dashing army lieutenant, Jack Lescure. A long, happy and companionable marriage ensued and Jack and Peggy embraced and cherished the simple joys of life together, from seasonal meals, including strawberry shortcake for dinner whenever strawberries were in season, to cheering on grandchildren at events and games, walking tours in Europe and around the country, and including the once a month shared hotdog on a picnic bench (Brud’s Hot Dogs of Boothbay being a top favorite).

Although her marriage took her away from the eastern shore of Maryland (to Bermuda, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Kentucky, California, Connecticut and finally Kennebunkport, Maine), she never forgot her childhood gang of four (half her high school class) and the Chesapeake Bay always remained close to her heart — its history, its landscape and the bay’s beautiful blue crab swimmers.

A devoted wife and mother to three children, Peggy still managed to continue her education, earning a master’s degree in library science and heading school libraries for a long and successful career. Books, reading, and the art of inquiry were her passions and her love of literature, history and learning imbued the Lescure family life. There was never a dinner when some question was not asked that would require more research, and the inquiry, not the answer, was the best part. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations was also always on hand for the perfect quip or quotation. Peggy’s book club friends and their husbands were some of Peggy’s and Jack’s dearest friends and the first question always asked when you saw Peggy was, “And what are you reading these days?”  

When she and Jack moved to Kennebunkport for retirement, Peggy threw herself into art history, her second love, and volunteered as a docent at the Portland Museum of Art for ten years. She delighted especially in tours for children, and she found special happiness in being able to share her love of art and art history with her daughter-in-law Isabel and her granddaughters. 

Peggy was a true matriarch of the Lescure clan and one of the loved elders of Squirrel Island in Maine, where she and the family have summered for four generations. In her last days she spoke about Squirrel Island as the place where so many of the most precious and beautiful moments of life with family and dear friends had unfolded — weddings, spelling bees, cocktail parties, anything anytime parties, games of hares and hounds, lobsters on Pie Rock, picnics anywhere, boating excursions and long and languorous mornings and afternoons spent on the Morningside cottage porch. 

Peggy will be missed deeply by her three children, Jamie Ault and her husband, George, of Wayne, Maine; Paige Lescure and her partner Robert Edmonds of New York City and Hingham, Massachusetts; and John Lescure and his wife, Isabel, of Kennebunkport, Maine. She will be remembered fondly by her four grandchildren, Alla Smith and her husband David Rodriguez, Sophie Johnstone and her husband Callum, John Lescure IV and his wife Paula, and Olivia Smith. Peggy’s five great grandchildren, Rupert, Teddy, Emmaline, Henry and Will will all remember Peggy as the brilliant, funny, loving and huggable “Maggie.“

A private celebration of Maggie’s life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers you may choose to send donation to the Portland Museum of Art or the Squirrel Island Library.

To share a memory or leave a message of condolence, please visit Margaret’s Book of Memories Page at www.bibberfuneral.com

Arrangements are in care of Bibber Memorial Chapel, 67 Summer St., Kennebunk, ME 04043.