Dec 5, 2014 2 min read

Margaret Joyce Rohlf Waller Cookus, 07/07/1943-12/04/2014, passed away early Thursday morning at Carroll County Hospital, surrounded by her loving family. Mrs. Cookus was 71 years old. “Peggy Joyce”, as she was known to her immediate family, was the daughter of Ivan and Mary Margaret Dailey Rohlf of Uniontown, PA. Her 7 younger brothers and sisters, Bob, Gerard, Mary Ella, Francis, Linda, David and Michael, all survive her.

She attended St. John’s School and Parish in Uniontown until she joined the Women’s Army Corps in 1961. There she met her first husband, Ray Waller, and moved with him to his family home in Ocracoke Island, NC, to raise their family: Ray, Jr., Ivan Rudolph, Robert Charles, Peggy Eva, and Christopher Robin, whose families now reside on Ocracoke, as well as Gig Harbor, WA and Westminster, MD. Later, she married a second husband, David Cookus, and raised her second family – David and Anna – there until Hurricanes in 1999, caused them to move back to Uniontown, PA, where they now have families of their own.

In recent years, P. J., resided with her daughter, Peggy Eva, married to USCG CW03 Brett Simmons, and their family in Westminster, MD. She is survived by 7 brothers and sisters, 7 children, 14 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. A brilliant, feisty and funny woman, less than 5 feet tall, she was a “mighty mite” who, like her mother, loved a good argument, and seemed to find her facts in thin air – her combatants fell in love with her. She is warmly remembered by all who were fortunate to know her.

The Catholic Mass will be celebrated at St. John the Evangelist R. C. Church in Uniontown at 11:00 am Saturday, 12/06/2014.