A few weeks back Ed Ammons let me know Peggy Lambert passed away. For many years she was a faithful reader of the blog and always had insightful comments to share.
Peggy Rosalie Lambert, 88, of Cherokee, passed away peacefully on December 4, 2023, at Cherokee Indian Hospital. She was born on September 5, 1935, to the late John A. Lambert and Sallie Ann Standingdeer Lambert. Peggy was known for her love of genealogy and fishing.
She was preceded in death by her husband, George Lambert; sister, Caroline Robinson; and brother, Marcell Lambert.
She is survived by her daughters, Theresa Frasher (Harold), Jennifer Blanton (David); son, Brian Lambert (Roberta); sisters, Rowena Rouland, Earlene Davis, Johnie Ann Lambert; brothers, Clyde Lambert, Buddy Lambert; grandchildren, Jeff Marley, Angie Marley, Natalie Ammons, Jesse Blanton, Alissa Owle, Nathanial Cummings Lambert, Aaron Lambert, Alexandra Wick, Abigail Wick Lambert; 14 great grandchildren; and 1 great-great grandchild.
Funeral Services will be held at 11:00AM Wednesday, December 6, 2023, at Bethabara Baptist Church, 1088 Birdtown Rd, Cherokee, NC 28719. Pastor Austin Frady will officiate. Interment will follow at Birdtown Cemetery.
The Family will receive friends from 10:00 – 11:00AM prior to the service.
Pallbearers are: Jeff Marley, Aaron Lambert, Jesse Blanton, Nathanial Cummings Lambert, Dylan Woodard, and Wyatt Woodard.
Although I hadn’t heard from Peggy in several years I was sad to hear of her passing. I had the good fortune of meeting her in person a few times. When I met her, Peggy was just as warm and knowledgable as she was online. She was a beautiful lady too.
Here’s some of my favorite comments from Peggy.
- Ooshie has always been used in our part of the woods when it is cold. I never hear younger children saying it, mostly all older folks like me and one of my sisters. We also had this phrase when we were playing or wanted to play we would always say “Lets play like .” Well, the cat died and we had to bury it. We had to have a preacher. A person we dearly loved that lived in our other house was a preacher and they had two sons who played with us. We got the sons to preach that cat’s funeral. Everyday we dug that cat up and they preached the service and sang again and we did that till it got so ripe we had to stop. We could always entertain our self and friends. We had no cell phones or games like kids have today. The sons have passed on and every time I think back on this I smile and then laugh.
- My ancestors, the Cherokee Indians used the walnut bark to dye their basket splints, carvings and used the nut meat to cook with in some dishes. My Mom told me that when she was a young girl living on Blue Wing (Soco) section of the Reservation that the women would beat up walnut hulls to make a pulp and would dam up the creek and put this in the creek water to make the fish come to the top of the water for air, then they would pick up the fish and put them in their baskets to take home to cook and eat. The squirrels bury them in my flower beds for the winter and the ones that come up in the spring and have leaves on them I break them off. I love the smell of the walnut.
- Well, I just went stoging out in the snow to feed the birds. This is about stoging. My sister had went to the doctor one day and he ask how she had been getting along and she said, just stoging a round, He asked her what was stoging. She told him it how you walk when your legs just don’t want to move.
- When I hear an owl I think of the book “I heard the Owl Call Name.” When we first moved back after retiring out of the military each morning some thing would leave me a few droppings, so I got up one night to see what it was and I looked out the door and two big eyes were looking at me. It was a barn owl, so I named him Mr. Will Owl from across the way. He finally left.
- “Happy Valentine Day” to Tipper and the young and old on this blog. My “Valentine” went to the “Eye Doctor” today. It was like the blind leading the blind. He has glaucoma very bad in both eyes. We will have to put drops in his eyes the rest of his life or go blind. Me, I found out that I have a cataract in each eye and will have surgery in April. We have loved each other so long it will be just another thing we will have to share. He has already had his new lens surgery. We have been married 60 years, going on 61. Been blessed by all those years with two daughters, one son, 8 grandchildren, 5 great-grand-children.
- All brother and sisters love to do their thing. Fuss and aggravate each other. One time when I was young probably 12, my brother just kept on messing with me, so grabed up a file which was laying on the table and told him I would hit him if he didn’t stop. Well, Daddy had put the small end of it down in a corn cob for the handle. Did you ever see one like that? I acted like I was going to hit him and it slipped out and hit him right smack dab in his mouth and knocked his front tooth out. Guess you know I never did that again. Did I get in trouble. You better believe I did.
- We all need more love and to be told or tell our children and family that we love them. My mother lost her mother at the age of nine and was put in Boarding School and was raised with several families. She was the best mother to us, 8 children and the best cook ever. Have a Merry Christmas.
- Many years ago we had a mill that ground the corn into meal on Adams Creek, Birdtown Community. They put the flume a long distance up Adams Creek. It was built by John Noland Lambert, years before my time. I have a hand drawn picture of it and I know where it was located. Also, I questioned about the mill. I picked my people’s brain with why, where, who and when. There was another gristmill on Lambert Branch, built by great great grandfather Lambert. First he built a traditional corn beater in 1870. Cousin Carl Lambert also had one in Big Cove section between 1929 and 1940. If anyone would like to read or buy this story about mills and corn. Below is where I got the Journal. Taken from:” JOURNAL OF CHEROKEE STUDIES” Vol. X1, NO.1 SPRING 1986 MAIZE WAS OUR LIFE A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE CORN by Joan Greene and H.F. Robinson. I don’t know if it is still in print. They sell them in the Museum of the Cherokee Indians.
- My grandmother and grandfather on my Father’s side had a house that had a porch on three sides of the house. On the backside of the house at the far end there was a spring house that had water coming out of the bank above the house and was fixed to run through the cement spring box and then running out side. This kept the milk and butter cold and anything else that would not keep till the next meal. We sure did not play here either. There was a cellar under the house for canned good and taters and we didn’t play there either. Wasn’t there very often and so as remembering what she taught me was nothing. We only lived a cross the field and a cross the creek. I can see what is left of their house and barn from our house.
- We had bees when we first married and then we entered the military and retired after 21yrs. We came back home to our beautiful Mts. We had 40+ hives and then the mite come along and we got down to 30 or so they keep dying and now we only have ten hives. Our 8yr.old put on his little bee bonnet and out fit and got his smoker and gloves and put up his first hive. His mother did a video of this and he took it to Show & Tell at school. He was also beating on a dish pan to make them go in. That little boy is now 18yrs old and in college and this week he helped his Pap-Paw fix the supers to put on the hives for the sour wood honey in July. Pap always gives him half the honey to sale. My husband talks to his bees. He calls them his little ladies. We go all around them because they are use to our scent. A man come after a hive one day and George told him not to go to the hive he would get stung, he didn’t listen THEY STARTED STINGING HIM. They know George’s after shave and under arm deodorant. Made a believer out of him.
- This is the easiest way to plant beans or peas, but it is hard on your rear end. My sisters and myself were the three oldest girls and one day Daddy told us to plant the beans on the hillside field, you know, where you have to have one short leg and one long one to get around it. Well, my oldest sister decided we had planted enough beans. There was a hollow stump near by and she poured the beans in the stump. Well, we didn’t think about it raining and the beans coming up. Daddy found them coming up out of the stump and did we get a good one.
I hope you enjoyed Peggy’s comments. I know she will be sorely missed.
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May her family find comfort in the Lord! I loved reading her comments.
Thank you for sharing with us about your readers. You sure care about everyone Tipper. It shows in your everyday kindness!
God bless all y’all!
My condolences to Peggy’s family. She was beautiful and left such interesting comments. We lost our last aunt recently. Aunt Georgia had a stroke Dec. 9 and passed away on the 12th at home. When she was a young woman, had finished high school and 2 summers at a college, she began to teach school. She and one of her brothers would ride their horses 9 miles from home to the community where she taught early Monday mornings and he would come back Friday to ride home with her. During the week she lived with one of the families where she taught. She taught for a few years until she married and started her own family. She had wonderful stories to tell and wrote many of them down. She wrote a cookbook a few years back. She was still cooking, was up and around, read her bible every morning, even taught a Sunday school lesson a couple of months ago. Aunt Georgia had slowed down in the last few months so we knew the time was near. She was herself until the morning of the stroke. She was sitting at breakfast with her daughter and son-in-law when it happened. She was only ill for her last 3 days. Aunt Georgia would have been 109 on June 9. She was amazing!
Joyce-I’m sorry you lost her. What an amazing lady!
After reading this morning’s post and seeing Peggy’s picture again I got so caught up in researching her family that I forgot to write a comment.
Having grown up just a couple of rivers and and a few hills away from where Peggy did and knowing the facial features that most of the Cherokees have, I will respectfully disagree with those who “see the Indian in her”.
With that in mind I have pursued the possibilities of her heritage most of the day today. I had already established my relationship to her. She was the wife of the uncle of my 4th cousins wife. Pretty close right?
Using online search technology I was able to look at not only Federal censuses but also the census of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. If you are in their census, you are Cherokee! Peggy is in the 1940 Federal Tribal Census and the 1967 revised Baker Roll. Both show her as 17/64s. Her mother is 1/2 and her father is 1/32. She got half of her mother’s half which was 1/4 or 16/64th and half of her father’s 1/32 which was 1/64.
Do you know if there is a connection between Peggy and the Yonce family from the Nantahala area?
Papaw-I don’t know but hopefully someone else does 🙂
I really enjoyed reading Peggy’s comments. I would have loved to have met her and spent some time listening to her stories. 🙂 ❤
Thanks for sharing Peggy’s comments, Tipper! So down to earth and real; like listening in to a conversation with a friend.
she sound like a wonderful lady and a very beautiful lady thanks for sharing this story of her life to us I enjoy reading everything you post thank you sending prayers to the family
So sorry about Miss Peggy and pray for comfort for her family. I would have loved to have spent time with her listening to all of her stories & knowledge. My great great grandmother was Cherokee & came from East Tennessee. As a child with long black hair & black eyes, my grandfather would pull my hair back at the nape of my neck & tell me to wear my hair like that because his grandmother wore her’s like that. He told me she was Cherokee, but for me not to tell anyone. Back then they were ashamed to say they had Indian in their lineage. He told me they just told census takers they were Black Dutch (whatever that is). In my family of 3 children I was the only child with white skin. I got the black hair & eyes from Mom, but my Dad was German & Dutch & had fair skin & blue eyes. My brother & sister had olive skin & would tan a beautiful coppery color in the summer, but I would just burn & peel off. My older sister would lay in the sun for a tan & I would lay beside her & she would say, “Get out of her, you are so milk white you are reflecting the sun.” She also told me I was adopted & sometimes told me with my milk white skin I had leukemia. Oh, how mean siblings can be, right? Still praying for Granny & the girls & their babies & your entire family. Pray we all have a blessed New Year & a better year than the last 3-4 yrs.
My grandfather always told us we were black Dutch.
I found out last year it was probable that they were Germans from the Black Forest area. Their skin was darker than other regions of Germany.
Another account is people from the Netherlands mixing with the Spaniards during the early wars.
Lastly, there are accounts of early immigrants mixing with Native Americans (or African Americans) and they used that term to hide the mixed race.
I have wondered if this might be where the color of the Melungeon people came from.
Either way, I am proud of my heritage! Our people had dark skin and dark hair. We never found Native American in our DNA makeup. I’m redhead and fair complected. My DNA says 36% Scot-Irish.
I love genealogy and learning the heritage of others!
What a pleasure it was to meet the most beautiful Peggy Lambert through this posthumous memorial! Being able to read her writings is like “time travel,” getting a glimpse of someone from another time, even though she’s gone on ahead.
Tipper, your blog is a much needed bridge between those gone bye and us. It softens the loss.
Prayers for you and yours, heading into the new year and forward!
Thanks for posting this. It is sad to lose these older folks, especially those who have a store of knowledge of the area where they and their ancestors grew up. Thanks for all you, Matt, the girls (and soon their children), and Paul do to keep those of us who don’t live in WNC, or even in Appalachia in touch with it. Although I have never lived in WNC, my paternal family roots go back to Eastern Tennessee in the Ballplay area of Madison County. I enjoy family genealogy and Civil War history, and have published articles in the Journal of Tennessee History, and in the Annals of Wyoming. Keep on doing your great service of posting to the BP&A. Wishing you and yours a healthy and happy 2024!
I loved reading about your friends post and so sorry for your loss .
Prayers to the Lambert family on their loss.
My deepest sympathy to Peggy’s family and friends. Her writings where wonderful. Each filled with great memories and lots of historical information too. Her family and friends will miss her dearly. Thankfully she left a great legacy of sweet memories to be cherish by all who read or hear her stories. Prayers for the family and friends she has left behind.
So sorry Peggy passed away and my heart goes out to her family. What a very pretty lady and I enjoyed reading her comments. Thank you Tipper for sharing this today.
What a lovely treasure ❤️Thank you for sharing her stories / life with us ❤️
God bless Peggy’s family with comfort and peace. She certainly was a beautiful lady.
Sorry to hear this. I know Tipper, as you all seem like family to us, I’m sure your readers do to you . There for I’m sure it sad for you to loose one. Prayers for the family. Rest in Peace Peggy.
Peggy epitomized all that is good and gracious when it comes to mountain ways. She was also a flowing font of wisdom when it came to both Cherokee and Smokies folklore. Deeply read, an earnest searcher after historical truth, and committed to preservation of the days and ways of the regional past, she quietly devoted endless hours to the study of regional history. She bought a number of books from me over the years, and every time we talked it was abundantly clear to me that she was a treasure of the sort we are losing at all too rapid a rate. Simply reading the comments Tipper shares opens a meaningful window into this woman’s world. I knew she was in failing health but missed earlier news of her passing. She was the kind of individual those of us among your readers, and I think that means most of us, should value greatly and bemoan their passing.
Tipper, this was a joy to read. My mother’s family is Cherokee (Tsalagi) and it was like sitting down and listening to my relatives share their stories. I’m a beekeeper myself and I appreciate that she shared how that is one of the activities of the mountain Cherokee/Tsalagi. The story about the cat funerals sounds just like something one of my cousins would do. Thank you for this lovely walk in the lane of memories.
Thank you for sharing parts of this wonderful lady’s life. I enjoyed each and every one of her stories. Prayers of comfort for her family and friends.
I enjoyed reading this about Peggy, but feel sorry for her family, I am sure they will miss her. Two or three of her comments stood out for me, one about telling your family you love them, I have already texted my grandson to see if he made it home after working a 12 hr “graveyard” shift last night and told him I love him. The second one about stoging around, I am going to use that one on my doctor. After working many times in the garden when I was a kid, I can picture tired kids doing something like this when planting the beans. Just like with her, it would have been ruff on the rear end.
24 degrees this morning and the frost looks like a young snow even know at 9 o’clock.
What an interesting life. I’m sure her family will miss her but, oh the stories will have to pass down.
What a sweet remembrance of Miss Peggy. This is how you make us all feel like family by sharing news and thoughts of sweet friends we have never met in person. Thank you, Tipper, for creating such a great community here. I am so blessed to be a part of it. Blessings to all for a great 2024. Praying for Miss Peggy’s family. Much love to all.
Good morning Tipper and family. Thank you so much for all the stories from Miss Peggy. I had the pleasure of seeing her and her family singing at Mars Hill College. Now it’s known as Mars Hill University in North Carolina, and they were wonderful. She just always knew how to bring you to your feet. I know she will be missed.
I hope you and Matt and the girls are doing well and wish you guys a very happy new year!
Rose
Peggy gave me what is now my favorite bean – turkey gizzard – and also gave me their story. She said they’d been taken to Oklahoma during the Cherokee removal and then brought back.
Peggy did, as the obituary noted, love genealogy. More broadly, she loved area history, and was a serious student who did things the right way, always going to primary sources.
Tipper:
Thank you so very much for your faithfulness in writing these daily essays. Just seeing your name in my inbox shortly after 6 am makes my whole day start out brighter.
You and your family stay in my prayers, especially Chitter and Chatter at this time in their lives, and also especially Granny.
Love,
Pam in Virginia
Pam, I also look forward to Tipper’s emails each morning, they are a bright spot in my life. I am often awake at 4 o’clock in the morning and have learned if I look back on yesterday’s post, today’s new post will be on it too. I can click on it and open it up and don’t have to wait until 6 o’clock . I hope you can understand this, the computer terms are like a foreign language to me.
Randy, I understood and did just that this morning! Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for sharing the interesting post today. I would have enjoyed talking to her!
Everyone have a great day. Blessing and prayers to all.
Tipper,
It’s easy to forget what a small world we live in – and then things like an obituary drive it home for us. I recognize many family names in Peggy’s memorial. It reminds me that WNC isn’t just tied by culture and tradition, but by blood too. My deepest sympathies to Peggy’s family and friends.
-Cassie
You have certainly introduced us to interesting people we will never meet, or at least not in this world. Across the days and years of BP&A we learn there are as many stories as there are people. And family stories have great depth and breadth of time and experiences. And Peggy didn’t even mention what they did in the 21 years of military service.
As I studied Peggy’s lovely facial features, as a part Cherokee, her face is the face of a beautiful Cherokee maiden! I enjoyed laughing at a few of her stories too! She must’ve been a wild card! May you rest in peace with our Lord and Savior as you go home to see the kin there waiting to welcome you home again to never leave!!! Oh this is a day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!!! Also, will you choose fear or faith (to live in a continual state of) and here’s a clue- you cannot live in both. Go boldly before God’s throne and ask for whatever you NEED! He’s no respecter of persons. 2024 is the year I boldly testify and speak of Jesus! He’s the only thing holding this all together!!!
Amen!
I would have liked to have met her in person, loved her comments!
Thank you for sharing. She had great stories and wisdom. Her family has quite the legacy from her life well-lived.
Good morning Tipper and all. I really enjoyed all of Peggy’s comments you posted. You can tell by these comments, she was such an interesting lady. I am sure she will be greatly missed. I will say a prayer for her family today.
Thanks for sharing Ms Peggy’s thoughts. I am new to your blog and I enjoy reading your posts very much.
Thank you
Dorothy
Thanks for posting this Tipper. I would have really enjoyed knowing her. RIP
Thank you so much for this article about Peggy. I loved to hear the family sing but most of all I really enjoyed seeing Peggy take off her shoes and wave her handkerchief while she was rejoicing in the spirit of the Lord!
I had no idea she was from Cherokee NC. I am a Cherokee descendant as my Paternal grandmother was full Cherokee Indian. The stories from her are fascinating and I will honor her and cherish her for as long as I live.
Can’t you just see her now rejoicing with the Lord in Heaven?
Kathy, are you talking about Peg McKamey Bean? She’s the singer that just passed away. Sang with her husband and two daughters and kicked her shoes off!! They are from my neck of the woods and know them well.
Thanks for the post. I love to read comments to your videos and blogs. All interesting posts and things to read are not always in books. Prayers still for Granny and you guys. God Bless.
She sounds like a wonderful lady. I think I would have liked her a lot.
my cousin and I would often say “Let’s play like” or sometimes “Let’s Pretend” we would then make the most elaborate scenes for our adventure such as a house of pine needles with rooms all laid out. what fun!
God bless those that loved Peggy with some kind of peace in Jesus
Thank you for sharing Miss Peggy’s wisdom with us. I loved reading her comments and stories, bless her heart she was most definitely a treasure. Rest in peace sweet Lady, you will not be forgotten.