PEGGY COONEY
03/02/1935 - 03/16/2023
Margaret Baker Healy (Peggy) Cooney died March 16, 2023, soon after celebrating her 88th birthday around the family table over which she presided for over five decades. A memorial mass will be celebrated at Holy Ghost Catholic Church, 6921 Chetwood in Houston, on Wednesday, March 22 at 10 a.m.
Peggy was born March 2, 1935, to Col. Daniel Francis and Margaret Ellington Healy in Baltimore, Maryland. She is preceded in death by her parents and her beloved older sister Edna Anastasia Healy (Nan) Austin. She is survived by her husband of 65 years, David Walter Cooney of Houston, her children and their spouses, David Cooney, Jr. and Lauren Donder, Julia Cooney Batdorf and Joseph, John and Elizabeth Cooney, Colleen Cooney Lewis and Mark, Patrick and Julie Cooney, and Stephen and Tonna Cooney; seventeen grandchildren and three great grand children, with two more on the way; her twin brother Ed Healy of South Bend, Indiana, and her older brother Dan Healy of Houston.
Peggy was well loved and she loved well. If the measure of a mother is her skill in never letting her children doubt that they were the most important people in her life, she topped the class. Her home town was Alexandria, Louisiana, but she moved from army post to army post when she was young. She attended Our Lady of the Lake College in San Antonio then transferred to the University of St. Thomas from which she graduated with her future husband, David, and a strong group of friends with whom she maintained ties her whole life. Peggy taught school, volunteered on the Harris County Children’s Protective Services Board, gardened, raised six children who graduated from college and packed about10,000 lunches over the years. She never complained. She loved her husband; she loved her children; she loved her life. One last time we answer the question David asked many, many times over the years: “Yes, dad, our mother is beautiful.” Dearest Peggy, we will carry in our hearts your spirit of generosity and gratitude, grace and love.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to womeninspiritinc.com