Born: August 11, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York
Died: 2012
Married:
Children: 2
Margaret A. Moschette McDermott, known as Peggy, was a daughter of William T. McDermott and Grace Freeman McDermott. She spent the summer of 1944 as bookkeeper at the Lake Clear Inn, owned by her aunt and uncle, and kept a photo scrapbook of the time period.
Her son provided the following chronology of her life as he remembers it from her stories, but warns that some work positions could be a bit out of sequence, especially those without dates.
She graduated Hempstead High School in 1938 at age 16 (some students were rushed through because the district lacked room for all the pupils as no new schools were being built during the Depression).
Like a lot of Long Island folk, she often took the train to Manhattan for lunch or dinner and a show with her girlfriends when the men were at war. She said she tried to join the WAVES but either failed to pass the physical or her father derailed the idea. V-E Day found her in New York City with her friend Ruthie, they departed quickly by train as news of the war's end was creating pandemonium.
First job out of high school: briefly worked for a tiny travel agent, F.P.J. Clarke, which folded when the owner died.
Graduate of Brown's Business School (secretarial/bookkeeper one year program, now part of Sanford-Brown) about 1939 or 1940
Business office, Arnold Constable & Co, Hempstead, New York
Proofreader, Doubleday & Co, Garden City, New York (1942, perhaps into 1943) (chronology on this one very conflicting)
Business office of a defense plant, perhaps Republic Aviation, night shift, six months, during WWII (left for medical reasons, doctor's certificate required to leave a war production position at that time - note how she was thin in the summer 1944 photos)
Bookkeeper at her uncle Will's Lake Clear Inn, late June 1944 to end of season, about November 1. She said she was invited to winter with the Wardners in Florida but declined, they drove her to her mom's on Long Island.
Secretary/teller, Second National Bank of Hempstead, Rockville Center, New York
1946-47 Legal Secretary, 12 months, to Mayor of Passaic, New Jersey.
1948 Long Island Lighting Co. at some point
1948-to early 49 Stanley Home Products business office, Hempstead, Long Island, New York
Homemaker after 1949
Lived the first half of her life on Long Island, the second half in Pennsylvania
Known as Peggy until the early 1990s, then generally Margaret because that's what all the doctors' offices used
Married her Army Air Force fiance, 1946. They honeymooned in New York City, with relatives in Corey's, Saranac Lake, Lake Clear, and returned by bus and train to New Jersey.
Two sons, two grandchildren, enjoyed travel throughout her life. Very fond of her Aunt Eva. Her summer in Lake Clear remained one of her most visited memories. She always said her Aunt Eva and uncle Will was very kind to her. When her AAF beau visited on leave, uncle Will gave them access to a car - with gas! - no small gift in a time of rationing.
She went to the Malone Fair that summer too.