Margaret Marie (Turnbull) Soder

Margaret Marie (Turnbull) Soder

April 11, 1929—March 2, 2018

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for

evermore. (Psalm 121)

On Friday, March 2, 2018 at 4:15 a.m., Margaret (Peg) Soder left for Heaven to dance with her husband across the clouds.  Peg died peacefully after a long illness at the Mountain Laurel Rehabilitation and Nursing Home in Clearfield, PA.

Born April 11, 1929 in Houtzdale, PA, Peg was the daughter of James Mitchell and Jean Love Turnbull.  From early on in life, Peg was a force to be reckoned with, her father’s tomboy, and determined to choose an independent life for herself unusual for women in her time.  Although she was the baby of her family, she was the first girl to learn to drive and to purchase her own automobile.  She chose to become a nurse at the age of six, influenced by nurses who took care of her after surgery.  After graduating from Houtzdale Woodward High School in 1947, where she was a cheerleader for the football team, Peg went on to achieve her Nursing degree from The Philipsburg State Hospital in Philipsburg, PA in 1950.  Of her early Nursing career, Peg often told stories about working in Washington, D.C., sharing an apartment with other nurses, which for a small town girl was a remarkable adventure.  She also did training at Warren State Hospital and often talked of her early experiences of working with mentally ill patients.

Returning home to Houtzdale, she went back to work at The Philipsburg Hospital where she also taught nursing students.  In the days of Elvis Presley and dance clubs, she met and fell in love with her husband, Robert (Bob) Soder of Grassflat, PA, and they married in Winchester, VA on November 8, 1957.  Once married, they moved to Clearfield, PA, where Peg began her long career working for the Clearfield Hospital as a nurse.  She retired in 1994 after working for decades as:  a floor nurse, a surgical nurse, a nursing supervisor, and finally, as a Home Health nurse.  Her specialty became working with hospice patients long before the term was coined.  Also, she was one of the first nurses to help create a union and to walk a picket line. It is an incredible understatement to say Peg gave all of herself to her patients and nursing; she was one of the most beloved nurses in Clearfield County, treating each of her patients as if they were family.  Everywhere she went, people of all walks of life stopped to chat with her and thank her, and she told the most marvelous stories about being a nurse.  Once a nurse always a nurse, Peg believed, and it could be said she was one up until she died.

Peg was also a beloved daughter, sister, wife, mother, mother-in-law, Nana and good friend.  She was also generous and loving.  Peg loved gardening and canning, sewing, quilting, embroidery, needlepoint, painting on fabric, ceramics, knitting and crocheting, crime dramas, soap operas and gospel music.  She was a member of the St. John’s Lutheran Evangelical Church and later of the West Side Methodist Church despite being raised as a staunch Presbyterian.  She collected fine china and glassware and loved a good yard sale.  In her later life, she loved her cats, her Elvis memorabilia and peanut butter meltaways.

Peg was preceded in death by her husband, Bob, her parents and her three sisters, her in-laws and several extended family members.  As the baby of her family, she was the last of her generation.  She is survived by her two daughters, Pamela Jean Turley of Prospect, PA and Peggy Ann Sinclair of New Hampshire, a son-in-law, Michael R. Turley, and three grandchildren, Emily Sinclair, Ian Sinclair and Nathan Turley, and by two nephews.  Peg’s family would like to help all the prayer warriors far and near who helped Peg along her way to heaven.  We would also like to thank Cheryl and Nikki Graham (and Cheyenne) of Clearfield, PA for their friendship and support of Peg during her long illness.

Services will be private with a memorial and interment service planned for late spring or summer at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Brisbin, PA.  In lieu of flowers, donations can be send to the Mountain Laurel Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in care of Carol Jarvis. 

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the Edward L Raisley Funeral Home, Prospect.

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