Margaret Sullivan

Margaret "Peggy" Sullivan died peacefully at home in Asheville, North Carolina, on February 28, 2026, with her husband Frank holding her hand and the kitchen radio still on. She was 78.

She was born Margaret Ann Reilly in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1947, the third of five children. She used to say her childhood taught her everything that mattered: that you feed people when you don't know what else to do, and that a cold morning is no excuse.

For thirty-four years Peggy taught third grade in Asheville. She believed eight was the best age — old enough to reason with, young enough to still be astonished — and she ran her classroom like a noisy, happy kitchen. Generations of children learned cursive, long division, and the particular Sullivan conviction that "we'll figure it out," from the woman they called, with great seriousness, Mrs. Sullivan.

At home the kitchen was never quiet. There were Sunday crosswords done in pen, a screen door that never quite latched, and a standing rule that nobody left hungry or unhugged. She loved Frank loudly and her six grandchildren shamelessly, and she kept a chair pulled out for whoever turned up.

Peggy is survived by her husband, Frank; their children, Karen, Paul, and Annie; and six grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her brother, Thomas. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in her name to the Literacy Council of Buncombe County — or simply do something she would have done: feed a neighbor, and when things look hard, say it out loud, "We'll figure it out."