Margaret Hains

Jun 16, 1930 -

Aug 21, 2023

Margaret "Peggy" Hains, 93, died at home with her family while in hospice care. The youngest child of three - siblings James and Patti - Peggy was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Rose (nee Bagley) and Slim Willis. Peggy's fondest memory of her younger days was making $5/day waiting tables with her sister at their family's Sunday Chicken Dinner Inn. After graduating from high school in St. Petersburg, Fla., Peggy launched into nursing because it was less expensive than college and was all she could afford. Even though in the '70s she went on to earn a B.S. in economics and a M.S. in education, nursing was her go-to employment throughout her life. She was a flight nurse for the Air Force in Germany in '61 when she met and married pilot Robert Barker. Two children followed quickly, Christian in '61 and Heidi in '62. Peggy earned her university degrees next, but went back to nursing after her divorce in '77, working as a Veterans Administration nurse. She was a nurse for the VA in Florida in the '90s when she met and married Thomas Hains, a retired NYC police detective on his second career as a VA nurse, adding his four children, John, Anne-Marie, Mark and Matthew, to her family. Tom and Peggy retired and enjoyed traveling, especially via RV. In fact, they drove from Florida to Alaska to visit Peggy's grandchildren, Nick and Teddy, no less than eight times. After Tom died in 2010, Peggy came to Anchorage, Alaska, in 2013, for her eldercare years, taking her position at the weekly family dinner as family matriarch. She flourished at Chester Park Senior Condos in Anchorage, making many friends and attending as many social events as she could possibly manage. Peggy also made the journey to the Anchorage Senior Center twice a week for art class, producing many wonderful "paper paintings," collages made with colorful paper. Even as dementia crept into her life during her last four years, Peggy remained curious, cheerful, sweet and oh-so-social.