Margaret (Peggy) Merrigan
Nashua, NH – Beloved mother and wife, Margaret (Peggy) Merrigan, formerly of Nashua, shuffled off this mortal coil on May 9, 2026 to join her husband, Charles.
Born on November 20,1938, in Quincy, Massachusetts, Peggy was the eldest child of the late James and Sarah (Jennings) Lister. Raised in Concord, New Hampshire, she graduated from St. John’s High School and then earned a degree in social work at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Early in her career she worked as a social worker in New York City.
When she and Charles settled in Nashua, she joined the Nashua School District as a teacher at Charlotte Avenue Elementary School. After raising three children, she ran the Chandler Memorial Ethnic Center in Nashua.
Peggy was an avid gardener who shared her love for gardening with others and cultivated beautiful flower beds, vegetable gardens, and fruit trees-the harvest of which she reluctantly shared with resident wildlife.
She loved spending time at the family camp at Webster Lake, built by her father and uncles in the 1940s. There she enjoyed searching for lady slippers and jack-in-the-pulpits in the spring, watching turkeys wander by in the fall, and observing migratory birds that overnighted in the woods on their journeys north or south.
Peggy is survived by three children: Sarah Paratore and her husband Vince of Nashua; Susan Williams and her husband Kevin of Hampton; and Robert Merrigan and his wife Sarah of Nashua. She was the beloved grandmother to Margaret Paratore, Vincent Paratore, Siobhan Merrigan, and Colin Merrigan. Peggy was predeceased by her sister Tamar (Lister) Gignac and leaves behind siblings Susan (Lister) Smilikis, George Lister, James Lister, and Robert Lister. She also leaves behind many cousins, nieces, and nephews who were very dear to her.
Family and friends are invited to her wake on Monday, May 18 th from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the FARWELL FUNERAL HOME, 18 Lock Street, Nashua. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Christopher’s Church, 62 Manchester Street, Nashua at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 19, immediately followed by interment at Edgewood Cemetery. To leave an online message of condolence, please visit www.farwellfuneralservice.com
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