The night before Peggy Smith Theim passed, her daughters told her what an awesome mom she was. “Oh, I know that,” she replied dryly. Even hours before death, she hadn’t lost her sense of humor.
Peggy died Jan. 5, 2025, in Yorktown, Virginia. She lived with her caregivers, daughter Charla and son-in-law Sean. She was 87.
Peggy was the eldest of five and born in St. Clair County, Alabama, to coal miner Lon J. Smith and Vernie Smith. Her family relocated to Bramwell West Virginia in the 1950’s when her father found temporary work in response to a decline in Alabama’s coal industry. After Peggy graduated from Bramwell High School, the family returned to Birmingham. Later, she would insist her daughters attend college because it had not been an option for her in 1950s Alabama.
In 1960, Peggy was working as a secretary in Birmingham when her best friend set her up on a blind date with Charles Theim. He was an Air Force veteran and recent graduate of the University of Alabama’s engineering school. They married a few months later, on Nov. 25, and after brief stints in Radford, Virginia and Marietta, Georgia, they returned to Alabama. Charles took a job with the U.S. Army Missile Command, and together with their three daughters Rebecca, Jean and Charla, they settled in Huntsville. Peggy was a homemaker and stay-at-home mom until 1979 when she returned to the work force. She would go on to have an almost 20-year career as a civil servant before retiring in 1997.
Peggy and Charles relocated to Buda, Texas, in 2005 to live near her daughter Jean and her family. Peggy was active in the First Baptist Church of Buda and the Onion Creek Senior Center-Buda, where she found a circle of close friends. In 2019, shortly after the death of her husband, she moved to Yorktown to be with daughter Charla and her family.
Peggy stayed busy—when her children were young, she sewed their clothes, decorated cakes, embroidered and crocheted. She loved to read, and even joined a church bowling league. In her later years, she enjoyed hitting the estate sales and card night with her friends. She loved dinner out with her “Honey”(Charles) at their favorite restaurant, Red Lobster, where she always enjoyed with a margarita. She was a fighter, too. She recovered from two strokes and beat breast cancer at the age of 83.
Peggy will be remembered as funny and loving, a great friend, the best of mothers, and a beloved mother-in-law, grandmother, great-grandmother and aunt.
In addition to her husband, Peggy was preceded in death by her parents and sisters, Pat Solmon and Ann Woods. She is survived by her brothers, Jerry Smith and Donny Smith; daughters Rebecca Theim (George Molnar); Charla Smith (Sean Smith); and Jean Asquith; eight grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, online or to CHKD, Attn: Philanthropy, P.O. Box 2156, Norfolk, VA, 23501.