Margaret "Peggy" Anne Ellison (Whitfield)

# Margaret "Peggy" Anne Ellison

**March 12, 1948 — August 4, 2023**

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Margaret Anne Ellison, known to nearly everyone who loved her as simply *Peggy*, passed away peacefully on August 4, 2023, in Norfolk, Virginia — the city she had made her home and her calling for more than half a century. She was 75 years old.

Born on March 12, 1948, in Roanoke, Virginia, Peggy carried with her throughout her life the warmth of the Blue Ridge foothills where she came of age. She was born Margaret Anne Whitfield, and she grew into a woman of quiet purpose, generous spirit, and an unmistakable gift for making people feel genuinely seen.

In 1971, she married Tom Ellison, beginning a partnership that would anchor the life she built with such care and intention. Together they raised three children in Norfolk, filling their home with the fragrance of Sunday morning cinnamon rolls — a weekly ritual that her family will carry forward as one of her most enduring legacies. Those who gathered around Peggy's table on Sunday mornings understood that the rolls were never really about the recipe. They were about belonging.

For more than thirty years, Peggy devoted herself to the children of Norfolk's elementary schools, shaping young minds with patience, creativity, and an unwavering belief that every child deserved to feel capable and loved. Colleagues remember a teacher who stayed late, who noticed the quiet ones, and who celebrated small victories as though they were great ones — because to her, they were. Countless former students carry pieces of her with them still, in the confidence she helped them find and the curiosity she refused to let go dormant.

Outside the classroom, Peggy's hands were rarely still. Her garden was a testament to her philosophy of life — not manicured perfection, but wildflowers in joyful, unruly abundance, spilling color wherever they pleased. She tended that garden the way she tended people: with attentiveness, with faith, and without the need to control every outcome. The Atlantic shore called to her as well, and she answered often, finding in the rhythm of the ocean something that matched the rhythm she carried inside herself.

Jazz was the soundtrack of her quieter hours. She loved its improvisation, its conversation between instruments, its willingness to wander and still find its way home.

Peggy is survived by her three children, five grandchildren, and by the immeasurable affection of all who knew her — students, neighbors, fellow gardeners, and friends who considered themselves fortunate to have sat at her table or walked beside her on the shore.

She was a teacher in the truest sense: not only of lessons, but of how to live.

*A life well-tended leaves seeds everywhere. Peggy's garden will go on blooming.*

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*The family welcomes memories and tributes from those whose lives Peggy touched.*