Margaret (Peg) McBane

McBane was born in Vincennes, Indiana to Anne Gertrude Dilks and George Goodrich Coale. She grew up on the family farm with her parents and older sister, Elizabeth 'Betty' Coale. Peg attended Westtown School in West Chester, PA. She graduated in 1933, and went on to attend Swarthmore College from 1933-34. When offered a full scholarship to Earlham College, she transferred again, graduating from Earlham in 1937 with majors in French and English. It was during these early college years that Peg first met John Kendall 'Ted' McBane. They were married on June 30, 1940.

She taught High School English and later worked as a social worker. In 1943, Peg moved with Ted to New Orleans while Ted completed his internship. After the 2nd World War, in 1946 they moved to California with their two children, Baxter II and Barbara. Local Quaker connections and the beauty of the then-still-partly rural San Gabriel Valley persuaded them to put down roots in Arcadia, CA. Their son, Kip, was born in 1948 and their youngest daughter, Margo, in 1952.

Peg began graduate studies at the University of Southern California, earning an MSW degree from the School of Social Work in 1960. Her final thesis project, "Parent-Child Relationships in 10 Cases of Truancy," anticipated the area of social work to which she dedicated herself after graduation. From the early 1960s until her retirement in 1995 at age 80, Peg worked full time as a Child Welfare and Attendance Counselor for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Peg was a humanitarian, a fighter for the underdog, and a “social justice” Quaker. The family attended First Friends Church in Pasadena (programmed) and later moved down street to the unprogrammed Orange Grove Meeting.

She died in her home in November 2011.

Peg is survived by three children; Barbara McBane, Kip Kendall Mc-Bane, and Margo McBane; six grandchildren, two great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild. She was pre-deceased by her husband, John Kendall 'Ted' McBane; and her son, Baxter McBane II.

Salient among Peg McBane's qualities were her fierce will and the firmness of her loyalty to the family and friends she cared about, and to her core beliefs. Those closest to Peg remember her, too, for her ready humor and wit, her beauty, and for her remarkable and wide-ranging artistic abilities.