Peggy Lewis Widdoes lived the kind of life that many people dream about.

She was a gifted athlete, an accomplished artist and a kind soul who made friendships that lasted a lifetime.

“Some people walk into your life quietly. Peggy came into your life like a whirlwind,” said her brother Bruce Lewis of Portland.

Margaret “Peggy” Lewis Widdoes, 83, died Saturday in Falmouth, where she spent her final four years. She lived most of her life in Augusta, graduating from Cony High School and later going to work as an assistant to Gov. Horace Hildreth in the mid-1940s.

She made her reputation on the golf courses of Maine. She was a terrific athlete, said her brother. She rode horses and played a mean game of tennis, but golf was her athletic passion.

“When she came back to Augusta after college, she took up golf, and I mean ferociously. She was an in-your-face golfer. She won club championships in Augusta, and played in pro-ams all over. She was a very forceful person, and that extended to her golf game. She was exciting and colorful. Somebody once said that if she had a manager, she could have gone pro. That’s how good she was,” Bruce Lewis said.

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Widdoes did everything that she cared about at full tilt, her brother said. During the summer, she enjoyed spending time at the family’s cottage at Ocean Point in East Boothbay. She and her father fished for lobsters, but they did not use traps and buoys. Instead, they dove over the side their boat and caught them by hand.

“She became quite a legend in Boothbay because of that,” Bruce Lewis said. “Once, she caught one that was 19 or 20 pounds.”

In addition to her athletic skills, Widdoes was endowed with artistic talent. She excelled at drawing and painting figures. At Christmas, she painted the widows of businesses on Water Street in Augusta.

Bruce Lewis is convinced that his sister could have supported herself with her art if she had wanted to do so.

“She had many offers to work as an illustrator for card companies, but the truth is, she never wanted to leave Augusta. She loved Augusta, and that was her home. She could have done anything she put her mind to, but she didn’t want to leave,” he said.

On Friday she will laid to rest at Mount Hope Cemetery in Augusta, her brother said.

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“That’s where she always wanted to be,” he said.

 

Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at:

bkeyes@pressherald.com

 


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