Margaret M. O’Neil

Margaret Mary “Peggy “O’Neil was born September 5,1931 and died peacefully on December 26, 2022, surrounded by family and the caring staff at Hancock Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, after a three year illness. Peggy was the oldest and only girl of the five children born to. Timothy J. O’Neil and Jane “Jennie” (O’Connell) O’Neil, Irish born immigrants. She graduated from Girls’ High in 1949, and Boston Clerical School a year later. She did well on the Civil service exams, and worked 47 years in the legal department, at the Division of Employment and Training. She adjusted to major changes over the course of her career, like when the office had to go from typewriters to computers, and also when they moved into the C.F. Hurley building in Government Center.

Peggy cared greatly for her mother and father, and helped take care of them well into their elderly years. She also loved her four brothers and her sisters-in-law, as she never had a sister of her own. As a young woman, she enjoyed going to Irish dances and spending time with friends, and would often reminisce of the fun she had at them.

Peggy lived all of her childhood in Charlestown, moved to and lived in Jamaica Plain for many years with her family, and eventually moved to Quincy. She enjoyed living in Quincy, as she loved to walk to Wollaston Beach, and enjoyed having her nieces and nephews down for visits and spending time in the area. She would open up the minds of some of her nieces and nephews to music not known to them such as The Andrew Sisters and her singing ‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree.”

Peggy was predeceased by her parents, Timothy and Jennie O’Neil, her brothers William, David, and Gerald, and sister in law Marilyn. She is survived by her brother Timothy O’Neil of Plymouth, and sisters-in-law Marie (William) O’Neil and Maureen (David) O’Neil.

Peggy was a devout Catholic, and helped support many Catholic organizations. Peggy had a sweet, kind, generous soul, and she will be missed and forever loved by her family and friends.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday January 9, 2023 in St. Ann’s Church at 10am. Burial in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, West Roxbury.