Spirit of Maryville 2017: Peggy Padberg McGarry

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The Heart of Maryville Award recognizes a lifestyle best exemplifying the values of the Sacred Heart tradition. Peggy Padberg McGarry is, literally, a lifelong member of the Maryville family. Her older sister, Marie Louise, enrolled in 1931, when McGarry was just a year old; later the nuns remembered young McGarry waiting at the entrance for her sister. McGarry graduated from Maryville in 1952.

The family legacy dates back even further. Five generations of Padbergs have attended Maryville—beginning in the 1880s. Sixteen cousins attended between 1922 and 1957, and others followed through the decades. Her father taught chemistry at Maryville.

The Padberg connection to the Society of the Sacred Heart is also deep. Two of McGarry’s sisters, Marie Louise Padberg, RSCJ, and Harriet Ann Padberg, RSCJ, were members of the Society of the Sacred Heart. Sister Harriet Padberg is celebrated as founder of Maryville’s music therapy program in 1972. McGarry donated a grand piano to the program and supports the Sister Harriet Padberg Endowed Scholarship for a music therapy student. For McGarry, a Sacred Heart education has been the foundation of her life.