Margaret "Peg" Rose (O'Boyle) McGranahan

Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and sister, Margaret "Peg" Rose (O'Boyle) McGranahan, 80, of Pensacola, left her earthly body peacefully on December 4, 2022, enfolded in love by her family at her home.

She was born on March 20, 1942, in Sioux Falls, SD to Margaret and Mark O'Boyle.

The youngest of seven siblings, Margaret grew up in a home full of laughter and love, grounded, like her siblings, in their Catholic faith, and eager to extend generosity and kindness to everyone around her. Her childhood in Sioux Falls was never far from her thoughts, and the stories and memories of her siblings and parents were a great source of joy to her throughout her life.

Margaret graduated from St. Joseph's Cathedral High School in Sioux Falls, where she played the flute, and she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Primary Education from Edgewood College of the Sacred Heart in Madison, WI. Upon graduation, she taught first grade in Bloomington, MN for two years. With an adventurous spirit that was present throughout her life, Margaret then taught with U.S. Department of Defense schools in Manheim, Germany and Tokyo, Japan, traveling frequently during this time to an array of countries around the world. Upon her return to the United States, she settled in Colorado Springs where she obtained a Master of Liberal Arts degree in Education with an emphasis in Primary Education from Colorado College, writing her thesis on the value of the arts in education.

In Colorado Springs, Margaret taught for six years, and during this time she was introduced through mutual friends in a ski club to a Major in the Army named Kenneth McGranahan, who would become the love of her life and husband for forty-seven years. After two years of dating, they were married at Pauline Chapel in 1975 in Colorado Springs with a reception at the Broadmoor Hotel, where her brother Tom was the resident pianist. Following their honeymoon in Aspen, CO, Kenneth received assignments in Falls Church, VA and Honolulu, HI before retiring at the rank of Lt. Colonel and moving back to Colorado Springs and then to Lawton, OK, Ft. Worth, TX, and Pensacola, FL. During this time, Kenneth and Margaret were blessed with four daughters: Mary Margaret, twins Ann and Jennifer, and Julie.

Settling in Pensacola, FL in 1985, Margaret was a devout member of Saint Paul Catholic Church until her passing. In Pensacola, she was an active member of the community, valuing a rich network of friends and taking great pleasure in the Pensacola symphony and in swimming—an activity she took up avidly later in life, especially delighting in swimming a lap for each year since her birth every birthday.

Throughout her life, Margaret championed the dignity inherent in life for all individuals. She frequently said that becoming a mother was the greatest joy of her life, and her devotion and love for her husband and daughters were natural extensions of her Catholic faith and of Christ's gospel of love—a love she modeled and embodied daily in her interactions with all people with whom she came into contact.

Preceded in death by her parents, Margaret and Mark O'Boyle, and siblings Jim, Dan, P.J., and Tom O'Boyle, Margaret is survived by her husband, Kenneth L. McGranahan; sisters, Mary Alice Mette and Julia Child; daughters, Mary Hurt (Craig), Ann Thomas (Ben), Jennifer McGranahan, and Julie Fink (Jonathan), and thirteen grandchildren; Genevieve, Thomas, Savannah, Nate, Madeline, and Gavin Hurt; Reilly, Seamus, and Roisin Thomas; Isabel Nittis; and Sibley, Margaret, and Hazel Fink.

Services will be held on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, at Saint Paul Catholic Church in Pensacola, beginning with the visitation at 10:30 am, followed by a Rosary at 11:00 am and the Christian Mass at 11:30 am. The burial will also take place on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, at 1:00 pm at Barrancas National Cemetery with a reception to follow at St. Paul Catholic Church at 2:15 pm.