Becoming “Peggy”
by Alice Major
Margaret “Peggy” Wick in her SPARS uniform. (Courtesy of Linnane Wick Joseph)
SPARS recruitment poster, 1943. Like the Army and Navy women’s reserves, the SPARs were established to release men from stateside service for overseas duty. The Coast Guard’s Women’s Reserve was created in 1942; Peggy was one of 13,000 to serve in the SPARS during the Second World War. (Naval History and Heritage Command)
: Fred and Margaret (nee O’Connor) Wick’s wedding on June 23, 1956 in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. (Photo courtesy of Regan Wick)
Fred and Peggy’s final resting places in Fort Logan National Cemetery. (Courtesy of Linnane Wick Joseph)
Margaret O’Connor Wick
November 14, 1923 - February 6, 2009
Margaret grew up the youngest of seven in a poor Wisconsin farm family. Her family, like other Depression-era families, did not have much. They almost lost their farm as well, and credited Franklin D. Roosevelt with saving it. They “thought of him as almost a god.”[1]
Despite her family’s poverty, Margaret was always adventurous. In 1944, months after turning 18, she enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (known as the SPARS).[2] Perhaps she made the choice out of loyalty to FDR. Perhaps it was because she didn’t want to do what the rest of her family did. Perhaps it was because she simply “caught a wild hair.” Whatever the reason, she did what no girl from her small town had likely ever done. She enlisted and stepped on a bus to New York.
That bus ride was a significant turning point in Margaret’s life. When she set foot in New York, she became Peggy and never looked back. She embarked upon a journey that many young women took alongside her. Legislation approved the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (nicknamed the SPARS, for “Semper Paratus Always Ready) on November 23, 1942.[3] Like the Navy WAVES, the SPARS gave women onshore jobs to free men for sea duty. Peggy worked as a secretary in New York and Florida, eventually making the rank of Yeoman First Class. Historically, men disliked women in the service and demeaned clerical work. But Peggy’s father was the exception to the rule – he claimed that “Peggy won the war.”
In her era, women typically returned home and got married after the war ended. This wartime marriage boom had extended into a social pressure to return to traditional feminine roles.[4] But Peggy never returned to her small hometown. She studied Spanish at the University of Wisconsin. There she met Dotty, a friend with whom she spent six months traveling Europe and South America. During that trip, she prayed at every cathedral she visited to meet a good Catholic man.
After returning to the U.S., she moved to Denver. There, she met Fred Wick, an Air Force veteran of the Korean War, on a blind date.[5] Their blind date was blessed by fate. Just as Margaret had prayed for a Catholic man, Fred was determined only to marry a Catholic woman. He wanted his family to share his religion, in order to avoid the turmoil of his faith-split childhood home. The two dated for a short time, then married on June 23, 1956.[6]
Peggy’s independence and edginess were not tamed by settling down to build a family. Two children in, Fred decided to finish his education – before the Air Force, he had quit college with two classes to go. Fred and Peggy went to get the paperwork to get him registered at the University of Denver. Miraculously, that day, a Sunday, was the day the time window ended for Fred’s GI Bill benefits.[7] Fred finished his accounting degree in his 30s.[8]
Together, Fred and Peggy raised four children. The family dynamic was easy, and the couple were “always on the same page” with raising the children.[9] Fred was a passionate father, proud of the independence and vivaciousness that Peggy instilled in their children through her example. Ever-adventurous Peggy discovered Irish dance, which quickly caught Fred and their daughter Linnane’s fascination. Linnane went on to establish the Wick School of Irish Dance in 1987.[10]
The couple remained active in their church, bringing Communion to the homebound. They passed on the faith that was so important to them to their children and grandchildren through schooling and example. They passed on more than just religion. Their children learned from their example and led independent lives, just like their parents. Linnane says that “you wouldn’t dream of getting married before 30” – their parents taught her that it was important to learn who you were as a single person long before marriage.
After Fred died in 2007, the family requested a plot in Fort Logan National Cemetery. Told that she could be buried on top of her husband with her name on the same headstone, or that she could have her own plot, Peggy said, “I think beside him is close enough.”[11] Peggy joined Fred seventeen months later.
Footnotes ↓
[1] Linnane Wick Joseph, interview by Alice Major, July 24, 2018, DU VLP.
[2] “Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File,” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, database, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com; U.S. Coast Guard SPARS recruitment poster from National Archives Catalog, NAID 513644; U.S. Coast Guard Discharge Papers for Margaret O’Connor.
[3] LT Connie Braesch, “Coast Guard History – SPARS,” Coast Guard Compass: Official Blog of the U.S. Coast Guard, August 6, 2009, accessed October 2, 2019, http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2009/08/coast-guard-history-spars/.
[4] Karen Anderson, Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II (London: Greenwood Press, 1981).
[5] Virginia Culver, “Lover of Irish Culture Passed It on to His Kids,” The Denver Post, September 18, 2007, C-06.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Regan Wick, interview by Alice Major, July 31, 2018, DU VLP.
[8] Culver, “Lover of Irish Culture.”
[9] Wick Joseph, interview.
[10] Wick School of Irish Dance Instructors and Assistants, accessed October 2, 2019, http://wickschool.com/.
[11] Wick Joseph, interview.
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