A wonderful woman, a wife, and a friend, our mom has graduated to a better place. Margaret "Peggy" Jeanne Kruse passed away in the early morning of June 2, 2023, at TJ's Assisted Living in Flagstaff.  She was 81 years old.

Peggy was born on October 6, 1941, to Alfred and Ann Sidebottom in Long Beach, California.  As the daughter of a Navy officer, she traveled between the California and Hawaii Navy yards. The story goes that Peggy, and her mother, hid under a bed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The eldest of five kids, she is survived by her sister Eileen and brothers Steve, Dale, and Don. The family eventually settled in Walnut Grove, California.

After graduating high school in 1958, Peggy attended St. Mary's College of California to seek a degree in Education, where on one fateful evening, she and her friends attended a dance held by the college. By chance, William" Bill" Kruse of Denver, Colorado, attended (crashed) that same dance with his best friend. Peg and Bill met, and it was love at first sight. They were married on August 11, 1962.

Bill joined the U.S. Forest Service, and they moved to the San Joaquin Valley in central California, where their first two sons, Andrew and Matthew, were born. 1965 they moved to Flagstaff, and in 1967, they purchased their first home on Grandview Road. Peggy taught special education at Saint Mary's Catholic Elementary School for several years. During this time, their third son, Paul, was born.

In 1971, they purchased five acres east of Flagstaff on Cosnino Road and began designing their forever home.  They moved into a temporary trailer on Cosnino in 1974, and after a feverish two years building, they moved in and began filling the house with countless memories. They spent the next 30+ years raising their sons, building and modifying the house, and gardening.

Peggy was an avid reader who was often found with a cup of tea and a paperback novel.  She loved many types of fabric crafts, including Tri-Chem, needlepoint, cross-stitch, knitting, sewing, and quilting, and often entered her works into the county fair, frequently winning prizes for her pieces.  For many years, she was an active member of the Coconino Quilters Guild and made quilts for all her children and many of her grandchildren, as well as caps, booties, and little blankets for many little ones in neo-natal care in the Flagstaff hospital. In the fall, Peggy would conscript her sons to help her gather blackberries, elderberries, raspberries, and prickly pear fruit and then spend long evenings making jam.  She would harvest the family garden and can zucchini, cucumbers, pickles, rhubarb, and peas into glass jars.

Somehow Peggy found time to raise three altar boys at St. Pius X Catholic Church, spend several years being a cub scout den mother, selling Avon, and camping.

Her beloved Bill passed away in 2006 after 44 years of marriage. Peggy continued to live on Cosnino until 2021, when she moved to TJ's Assisted Living just east of Flagstaff. Peggy is survived by her sons Andrew "Andy," his wife Sabine, and two sons William "Will" and Ryan; Matthew "Matt," his wife Fabiane, and their children Anna and Benjamin "Ben"; and Paul, his wife Leslie, and his children Aaron and Sarina.

A Celebration of Life ceremony will be held on Friday, August 11, 2023, starting at 11:00 am at Lozano's Flagstaff Mortuary at 2545 N. Fourth Street. Light refreshments will be served. Please let us know if you can attend by contacting Paul at pkruse101@gmail.com.

After the ceremony, she will be interred with her husband at the Calvary Catholic Cemetery mausoleum.  This date would have been Peggy and Bill's 61st wedding anniversary and is the date when they will be together again, forever.

In lieu of flowers, we ask for a donation to be made to her favorite charity, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul: Flagstaff. Please follow https://www.stvincentdepaul.net/give/donate to donate. Indicate "In memory of "Peggy Kruse or Margaret Kruse, and feel free to leave a tribute; she was a wonderful woman and had touched many lives. Note: Each donation needs to include her name to ensure the donations go to the Flagstaff branch. Thank you.