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Peggy Elaine Daw, 65, of Greenville NC has set sail for the last time and has left to be with the Lord.

Peggy was born in Beaufort County to Leslie and Ruby Daw and grew up in Bath, NC. She attended and graduated from Bath High School before marrying her husband Gary. She graduated from the nursing school at Beaufort Community College and served in some capacity as a nurse or nursing academic for her entire life. Her life was focused around helping others. She received her Masters in Nursing from ECU in 2010 and went on to receive a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from Johns Hopkins University.

After decades in nursing spent in hospice care, psychiatric care, and working directly with patients, she went on to become a published author in research journals and worked to distribute grants and awards to future nurses as the NSP II Grant Administrator of the University of Maryland system. She was passionate about helping a new generation of nurses and fought for every dollar she could allocate to their futures. When she wasn’t working and learning she was forming a plan to rescue her former high school in Bath from being demolished, and established the Bath High School Preservation non-profit organization. With years of fundraising and appeals to state agencies she helped turn a vacant brick building into a community center. She was a key figure in this organization for 17 years, often serving in a leadership position after her early efforts to save the school. She was well known for her altruistic efforts to serve the high school non-profit, the library and the Bath community in general.

But despite all of these accomplishments Peggy’s proudest legacy was always her children and grandchildren. The biggest champion for her children in all of their endeavors, good and bad, was our mother. Stephen, Jonathan and Lindsey were truly blessed to be the recipients of her patient love and unending support for so long. We will miss her big brown eyes looking at us with warmth and understanding when we make mistakes or go through the ups and downs of life. But she instilled in her children a confidence which cannot be shaken and filled us with love that we will always remember.

Peggy also loved her beautiful grandchildren – Caitlyn, Anna, Ben and Kali. She would attend countless school events, graduations, piano concerts and spelling bees. She would visit them from Washington State to the Outer Banks, Peggy wanted to share her love with them and cheered for their successes and surrounded them with warmth and support at every opportunity.

She loved being on the water, from her early years on Bath Creek to her time in Deale, MD where she would commute to her job with the University of Maryland. She loved to see cows grazing and playing in the fields of the NC mountains. She loved sailboats and it filled her heart with joy to feel the breeze sailing on the Chesapeake Bay. She loved her two sweet little dogs, Amelia and Lilly.

But most of all she loved her family and was the best mother, sister, daughter and friend that any of us have ever known.

She is preceded in death by her father Leslie. She is survived by her mother Ruby Daw of Bath; her daughter Lindsey Ivey and her husband Sean from N Wilkesboro; her son Jonathan Smith and his wife Joy in Avon; her son Stephen Smith and his wife Lori from Kill Devil Hills; her brother Bennie Daw; her brother Buddy Daw and his wife Susan; her sister Dorothy Mills and her husband Dan; and her grandchildren Caitlyn Smith, Anna Ivey, Ben Ivey and Kali Smith.

Donations can be sent to Bath High School Preservation – http://www.bhspreservation.org.

Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.paulfuneralhome.com.

Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington is honored to serve the Daw family.