Peggy Marshall, who died Feb. 26 in Colorado Springs at age 92, became a nationally recognized activist for people with disabilities, a cause adopted after an illness left her youngest child with physical and mental disorders.
The daughter of a would-be inventor who worked at paper mills, Marshall moved frequently throughout her childhood. She and her sister won scholarships to elite Smith College. Two years short of graduating, she married Ford K. Sayre.
Together, they ran the Hanover Inn in Hanover, N.H., and founded a ski school now 60 years old. Along with rearing three young children, she continued managing the inn after her husband went into the Air Force in 1942 and after his death in 1944.
She married Andrew Marshall, another widowed parent, in 1946. They moved to Colorado Springs in 1950.
Shortly after the 1953 birth of the Marshalls’ daughter Ellen, the baby suffered a brain infection that left her with profound physical and mental problems.
Advised to place their child in an institution, the Marshalls raised her instead. Peggy Marshall took heart in a quote from Annie Payson Call’s “The Freedom of Life,” which she framed and hung in her home: “Circumstances, however difficult, are always – without exception – opportunities, and NOT limitations.”
Frustrated at the paucity of education and social options for children and adults with special needs, Peggy Marshall formed a coalition of parents.
In 1971, they founded Cheyenne Village, a groundbreaking program that later became nationally recognized for its success in providing supervised and supported living services. Ellen Marshall, a cart attendant at a Colorado Springs Target store, continues to live in Cheyenne Village, where she shares a house.
Peggy Marshall also worked as a docent at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, where she inaugurated the Touching Gallery, a hands-on sculpture exhibit.
Additionally, Marshall’s interest in gardening led her to design and build a wheelchair-accessible raised ornamental garden recognized by the Smithsonian Institution. She treasured this honor on a par with her honorary Colorado College degree.
At Marshall’s request, her memorial will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, which would have been her 93rd birthday, at Shove Chapel in Colorado Springs. She advised mourners to wear bright, colorful clothing to the service.
Survivors include sons Ford K. Sayre of Barrington, R.I., Andrew Marshall II of San Francisco, and Robert H. Sayre of Minneapolis; daughters Margaret Sayre Wiederhold of San Antonio, Lee Marshall Strang of Edina, Minn., and Ellen Butler Marshall of Colorado Springs; eight grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren. Her husband Andrew died in 1996.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
