Marguerite "Peggy" Bronkema-Allen

Marguerite “Peggy” Bronkema-Allen, resident of her beloved Penney Farms in Florida for 30 years, went to be with her Lord Jesus Christ on Wednesday, October 15 at 90 years of age, after a full and vibrant life of loving, enjoying, and serving her family, her community, and her God.

Born on April 3, 1935 in Natick, MA to Robin and Alice Cobble, Peggy was raised in the Belgium Congo by her Disciples of Christ missionary parents for the first 13 years of her life. Faith, serving others, education, music, and working with one’s hands were hallmarks of her family, and became cornerstones of Peggy’s life as well, along with a love of reading, carpentry, sewing embroidery, crocheting, knitting, cross-stitching, and puzzles of all kinds. She graduated from Phillips University in 1956 with a major in Spanish and French and minor in math and science, and honed her piano and the French horn skills at the same time. Peggy went on to receive a Master’s of Arts from the Teacher’s College of Columbia University in 1957 and then taught at the Hazel Green Academy in Kentucky for a year; she also engaged in post-graduate studies at Princeton Theological Seminary (1958-1959), Stockton State College (1989), and again at the Teacher’s College of Columbia University in 1991.

During her time at Princeton Theological Seminary, Peggy met Fred Bronkema, to whom she was married for 46 years from 1959 until his death in 2005. During that time as they moved around, Peggy taught at the Dunfermlin Secondary School near Edinburgh, Scotland, and served as a “minister’s wife” and homemaker for their growing family in Red Bank, N.J. and Wilmington, DE. Beginning in 1966 and for the next ten years, Peggy and Fred served as missionaries in first Portugal and then Italy, working side-by-side to build and manage a “Reconciliation Center” with local pastors to bring bitterly-divided Protestants and Catholics together in Portugal, and ran a strategic publishing project in Italy called “The Future of the Missionary Enterprise” linking mission churches with the major protestant denominations in the United States under the auspices of the World Council of Churches affiliated International Documentation Center (IDOC). Upon their return to the United States in 1976, Peggy served as the librarian and assistant to the director of the world-renowned Overseas Ministries Study Center in Ventnor, NJ, and she and Fred attended Pleasantville Presbyterian Church. In 1986, Peggy and Fred traveled to Honduras to serve as missionaries with the Honduran Christian Commission for Development, helping to develop a reconciliation center in that country as well. Upon their return to the United States in 1988, over the subsequent years in New York City Peggy served as an editor for the Office of Latin America of the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCCC), taught Spanish in both private and public schools, and became involved in the Spiritual Life Ministry of Riverside Church. In 1995, Peggy and Fred moved to the Penney Retirement Community (PRC), with Fred dying 10 years later from complications of Alzheimer’s.

In PRC, Peggy played the French horn for the PRC’s Sunshine Band and the Clay County Community Band; sang in PRC’s choir and a cappella groups; planted a garden that was a consistent source of joy, co-planned programs for the annual Strawberry Festival, and planted 12 trees on PRC’s campus that are still standing; served meals for over 10 years; participated energetically in the Personal Energy Transportation (P.E.T.) program that sends wheelchairs to those in need all over the world; helped lead and teach in the Quality of Life Resource class; and served as both the Secretary and President of the Association of Residents (AoR) of Penney Retirement Community. Peggy was also the co-founder of the Healing Prayer Ministry at Penney Memorial Church, served as Secretary of the Church Board, spent time as a member of the Flower Committee, and was an occasional preacher during the church services. Outside of PRC, Peggy served as a Guardian ad Litem (child advocate) for the courts of Clay County for 15 years, knocked on doors to get people registered to vote, worked at the pools, was a consistent champion of over 30 different causes, and just in the last year had begun volunteering for the Rejoice Transforming Ministries engaging with those located in the Lowell Correctional Institution. It was also at PRC that Peggy met and married David Allen in 2011, with whom she spent 12 wonderful years of love, adventure, and worship until his death in 2024.

Peggy is survived by her four sons David (Robin), Timothy (Maria), John (Debbie), and Bob Bronkema (Stacy) and 10 grandchildren (and two spouses) and 1 great-grandchild; her siblings Betty, Bob (Julia), and Nancy; and David Allen’s children Nancy Kurkowski (Hal), Stuart Allen (Lorri), and Carolyn Osoinach (John), and 4 grandchildren and their spouses. The burial will be held on Monday, November 3, at 3 pm in the Fairlawn Cemetery in Prattsville, NY, and the memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 29, at 10 am at Penney Memorial Church in Penney Farms, FL. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Peggy’s memory to Christian Healing Ministries (https://www.christianhealingmin.org/).