Margaret “Peggy” Hull Chalif

Margaret “Peggy” Hull Chalif, age 96 years, of Frenchtown, NJ, died on Thursday, December 2, 2021 at Twin Cedar Nursing Home, Shohola, PA.

Dynamic and full of vigor, Peggy’s interesting life journey is best told by her daughter, Skye, who writes,

“If anyone could be called a class act, it would be my mother. She was at all times elegant, smart, funny and kind. Her kindness stretched so far, she would be incredibly surprised when somebody wasn’t. In short, she loved men and animals, especially dogs, though she never discouraged me throughout my snake and bullfrog years.

 As for elegance, her granddaughter, Molly, was amused that her Nana was the only person she ever knew who put out her best bone china and Tiffany sterling silver for take-out pizza. Her Nana taught her at a very young age how to set a table with silverware you would never know what its use was.

My mom never stopped wearing her classic boarding school crew neck sweater with her collar sticking out and some long necklace or scarf around her neck. 

Her ancestors on both sides were on this land in the 1620’s and she was a direct descendant to Nicassius de Sille who was general council to Peter Stuyvesant in New Amsterdam. 

When Peggy was little, her dream was to work as a cartoonist for Disney and spent much time drawing that led to her passion for interior decorating that continued throughout her life, even teaching herself how to upholster furniture. A favorite love was flower arranging especially with what she called “permanent botanicals” or fake flowers. 

As was common at that time, she gave up her dreams and joined her husband’s family business as dance teachers. To train, she enrolled and graduated from the Chalif Normal School of Dance, that her father-in-law founded, Louis H. Chalif, the first Russian ballet master to come to New York from Russia. 

Peggy had her first kiss standing under the portrait of her grandfather, Richard Vliet Lindabury, general counsel to US Steel and Prudential who had founded St Bernard’s School for the farm boys like he had been to get a good education and my mom was there for a dance.

Peggy was born in Warwick, RI and raised in Bernardsville, NJ. Her mother believed it was good to change schools every few years and among those she attended were Far Hills Country Day School, the Peck School, and Miss Gill’s School in the Mendham Hills. She graduated from the Westover School in Middlebury, CT in 1943. 

At eighteen and second in her class to marry (the first became my godmother), she wed Army Air Corps bombardier, Lt. Amos Chalif in January 1944 and, with a brother-in-law paying off a conductor, she was snuck onto a troop train going from NYC to Florida. Once in Miami, they had two weeks together before he was shipped out and she didn’t see him again until she was twenty.

After the war, they settled in Chatham, NJ raising their two children. Later they lived in Mendham and Frenchtown, NJ.

My mom was ahead of her time as a free thinker. She was born just a few years after women had gotten the right to vote and was excited with the predictions of Hillary Clinton’s prospects to be the first woman President. I took her to Town Hall to vote and then dropped her off back at her house. That night I didn’t have the heart to call her but the next morning she called me. I’ll never forget that sad little voice. “I guess I won’t live to see a woman President,” she said. Well, thanks to President Biden’s timing in scheduling his colonoscopy just a week ago, I was able to tell my mom she did, in fact, live to see a woman President! So thanks, Joe!

My mother’s passions were men, dogs, decorating and gardening, in that order. After my father passed away, she never stopped catching the eye of attractive men and had a boyfriend up to the day she died at 96.

Peggy was a member of the Junior League of Morristown and the Colonial Dames of America. 

She is predeceased by her husband of 68 years, Col. Amos Chalif, USAF (Ret.), and two brothers Howard Gillespie Hull, Jr. and Richard Lindabury Hull.

She is survived by two daughters, Wendy Chalif Eld, and her partner Richard K. Thoene, Skye Hull Van Saun, and one grandchild, Molly Van Saun Sumridge, and her husband, Samuel C. Sumridge.

A memorial service will be held after the holidays in the spring and will be announced on this page mid-January 2022. Interment was private in St. Bernard’s Cemetery, Bernardsville, NJ.

Complete arrangements are under the care and direction of Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 38 State Highway 31, Flemington, NJ.

You are encouraged to visit Peggy’s permanent life celebration site at www.wrightfamily.com to light a candle of hope, leave messages of condolence, share words of comfort and recollection, and post photographs of her life.

Donations in her memory may be made to Echo Dogs White Shepherd Rescue, PO Box 95705, Hoffman Estates, IL 60195.

____________________________

Wright & Ford, your local, family owned & operated “Life Celebration Home”

To plant a tree in memory of Margaret "Peggy" Hull Chalif, please visit our Tribute Store.