Peggy Clemmer Golden

Peggy “Pego” Louise Clemmer Golden died at home on January 16, 2025. She was 97 years old. A Service of Witness to the Resurrection will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, January 24, at First Presbyterian Church in Sanford.  

Peggy was the eldest child of Hazel Amos “Coach” Clemmer and Mildred Louise Strutt Clemmer. Born in Maiden, NC, on August 8, 1927, Peggy spent her first 17 years all over North Carolina as her father moved from town to town to teach. She graduated from RJ Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem in 1944 and earned a B.S. degree in Health and Physical Education from Women’s College (now UNC-Greensboro) in 1948.  

On August 28, 1948, Peggy married Meigs Coker Golden of Sanford soon after he returned from the South Pacific, where he was a B-24 Bomber Pilot in the Army Air Corps. Meigs and Peggy would live the rest of their lives in Sanford. 

During the 1950’s polio epidemic, Peggy served as president of the Sanford Junior Women’s Club and led the first Mother’s March on Polio. She was part of the team that established a Salvation Army Corps in Sanford and served on their Council for many years. She was a charter member of the Lee County Education Foundation. Peggy joined First Presbyterian Church in 1949. Over the past seven decades, she served as a youth advisor, Sunday School teacher, Disciple Study teacher, and elder.  

Following in her father’s footsteps, Peggy taught and coached in the Lee County and Sanford City Schools for twenty years. In the 1960's, she fought successfully for girls to have access to the same athletic opportunities that were afforded to men and boys. When Lee County schools integrated in 1966, Pego put herself in the middle of the fray, doing the work of a peacemaker.  

Like her mother, a championship golfer, Peggy was frighteningly competitive. She played softball, ran track, and was an all-state high school basketball player. In her words: “It came naturally for me to run, jump, hit, throw, catch, and love competition.” Into her 80s, if you knew where to look for her, you could see Pego running down to the court at the Dean E. Smith Center to share her opinions with the officiating crew. 

After taking up tennis when she was 49, Peggy went on to top-ten national and international rankings and was selected to represent Team USA in an international competition in Austria. She was the founder and first president of the Sanford Squids swim team, the creator of the Carolina Cup tennis competition, and served on the committee that established the Triangle Tennis League. She was a board member of the NC Tennis Foundation and the NC Tennis Association, which honored her with the establishment of the annual “Peggy Golden Spirit Award.” In 2000, she was inducted into the NC Tennis Hall of Fame.  

In her later years, Peggy developed a philosophy that held truth and love above all else. In a document she left for her family, she wrote, “I had a full and happy life. I loved LOVE because God is love, joy, peace, and freedom. I tried to live by truth and love: to know the truth of the gospel, the truth about myself, the truth about all that surrounds me - then behave with love in action.” She encouraged her family to “know the truth and act on it with love, love, love,” adding, “it works.”  

Peggy is preceded in death by her beloved husband of 53 years, Meigs Golden, and her sister, Dotty. She was the beloved matriarch of a large family and is survived by four generations in whom she took great pride and loved abundantly: Coker and Sarah Golden, Frank Golden and Karen Boden, Greg and Laney Golden, Ann Golden; and her beloved and devoted caretaker, Sola Edwards, whom she considered as a daughter. 

Pego is also survived by her grandchildren: Franklin and Martha Golden, Patrick and Nadija Golden, Cameron and Carson Golden, Alex and Elizabeth Golden, Patrick and Nicole Landry, and Pearce and Anne Landry; her great-grandchildren: Lily and Davis Golden, Mawi Golden and John Lawson; Walker, Caroline, and Tyler Golden; Harris, Laney, and Meigs Golden; Naomi Golden; Jordan and David Merritt; Payton and Jacob Pritchett; Pearce and Caroline, Robert and Marshall Landry; and her great-great-grandchildren: Malachi and Josiah Golden Lawson, Kaia and Kaymus Merritt, and Beckham Pritchett.  

In the last years of her life, Peggy was loved well by her caregivers. Her family will always be grateful.  

In lieu of flowers, the family would be grateful for gifts in Peggy’s memory to the Golden Scholarship through the CCCC Foundation (1105 Kelly Drive, Sanford, NC 27330), First Presbyterian Church, or the Salvation Army.