Helen Marguerite
“Peggy” Burr, 88, longtime resident of High
Street, Ipswich, died Saturday, June 25, 2011 of natural causes in
Beverly Hospital. She was the wife of the late Eugene Burr.
Born September
30, 1922 in Cambridge, daughter of the late Herbert D. and Ruth (Bockius)
Miller, she grew up in Maine and New Hampshire where she attended
the University of New Hampshire in Durham and
the Mackintosh Business College in Dover, NH.
A natural
athlete, she excelled in swimming and ice skating at an early age.
In high school she participated in team sports, particularly
tennis and basketball, and all her life she
followed and was a loyal fan of the Boston Celtics.
Peggy was well
known in Ipswich, where she volunteered at the Red House and was a
docent at the Crane mansion. For several years she served as an
election poll supervisor for the Town of Ipswich.
Always
impeccably dressed, she had an innate sense of style, both in her
dress and in decorating her home. She bought the Stone Rust House,
built in 1750, at 57 High Street which she furnished with her
collection of early American antiques and transformed the neglected
grounds into a handsome New England garden.
Her career in
retail sales included women’s apparel boutiques where her ability to
help customers choose what best became them was tested when a sister
living overseas in many different countries asked for her help in
selecting clothing suitable for a diplomatic lifestyle. Each item
she selected always fitted perfectly and caused her sister to be
considered “best dressed woman” at several American diplomatic
posts.
She is survived
by her devoted companion of sixteen years, Lawrence Berry, a veteran
World War II marine, with whom she enjoyed some of the best years of
her life.
She is also
survived by a son, Roger Blake Judkins II and his wife Sharon of
Maryville, Tennessee, a daughter, Susan
Judkins Darbee of Folsom, California, two grandchildren, Blake
Decker of Plano, Texas and Kaari Stannard of Albany, New York, four
great-grandchildren, four nieces and a nephew. A second son,
Jeffrey Dwight Judkins, predeceased her. She also leaves two
sisters, Ann Miller Morin of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Nancy
Miller Axell of Lacey, Washington.
A private
graveside service will be held later this summer at the family lot
in Durham, NH.
Family and
friends are respectfully welcomed to a memorial reception at 1:00 pm
Saturday, July 23 at The Hart House Restaurant, 51 Linebrook Road,
Ipswich.
Arrangements are
under the direction of the Whittier-Porter Funeral Home of Ipswich.
