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In Memoriam
Margaret "Peg" Marston
By Ann Jarmusch
May/June 2021
Margaret "Peg" Marston died April 15, two weeks after she turned 100, and twelve days after her 80th wedding anniversary. She was the widow of Hamilton Marston, a grandson of George and Anna Gunn Marston, and a neighbor of the Marston House Museum & Gardens.
In the 1970s, Mrs. Marston and her husband moved from their home in Bonita to his late parents' house, the 1909 Arthur and Elsa Marston House, on Seventh Avenue in San Diego. She raised four children, three of whom survive her: Anne, George, and Charles. Daughter Elizabeth died in 2002. Mrs. Marston would bounce around with her athletic family on excursions in a Jeep. In her later years, Anne lived with her and together they would stroll in the Marston House formal gardens almost daily.
 Marston descendants turned out for the grand opening in 2009: Left to right Annalee Hargreaves-Tanzi, Connie Beardsley, George Beardsley, Peg Marston, Anne Marston
"Peg was a steadfast matriarch of the family," Sarai Johnson, Marston House historian, said. "She was really good at navigating the family through difficult times," like the sale of the Marston Store to a national chain in 1961.
She was "an elegant, refined, lovely woman. Every interaction I had with Peg was a pleasure and a gift," said Alana Coons, SOHO's director of education and communications.
"Peg was so pleased when SOHO took over operations of the original family home," Alana added. "She joined us at every special event held at the Marston House Museum, from opening day in July 2009 to celebrating the opening of The Marston Legacy: Progress and Preservation, a permanent exhibit, in October 2019."
Mrs. Marston was an advisor to the exhibit and lent several hundred images, ephemera, and documents, which SOHO scanned and put on display. While she was a member of the Wednesday Club and joined auxiliaries for major San Diego institutions, Sarai said "she never put herself out front."
She was very private and discreet, telling Sarai about her family only after years of building trust. "Peg would educate me, take time to talk to me." And if Sarai had some inaccurate information, "Peg would graciously correct me, so gently that I almost didn't know I got something wrong."
Sarai added: "She was the best of the best of people."
Read MORE about Peg Marston's life.
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