Cain, Margaret Shaw Genter
Margaret “Peggy” Louise Shaw Genter Cain, 95, of Blacksburg, died Saturday, November 14, 2015, at LewisGale Hospital-Montgomery in Blacksburg, VA. She was born December 18, 1919 in St. Johns, Michigan, the daughter of Robert H. Shaw and Emma Pauline Houghten.
Peggy was raised in Michigan and trained as a secretary at the Acme Business School in Lansing and subsequently worked in various offices before becoming secretary to the 37th governor of Michigan, Luren Dickinson from 1939 – 1940 at age 20. She married in 1940 and moved with her husband to Columbus, OH while he completed his PhD in Agronomy at Ohio State.
Peggy lived in Blacksburg from 1947 to 1977 following her husband’s employment at Virginia Tech. She returned to Blacksburg in 1988.
She was an active member of Blacksburg Presbyterian Church serving as a deacon and on numerous committees and both president and treasurer of Presbyterian Women. She served as an elder at a Presbyterian church in Laurinburg, NC where she started their Women of the Church program. Peggy was instrumental in the founding of the Easter Seal speech and hearing clinic for children in Christiansburg during the 1950s. She was also an active volunteer with the blood mobile.
Her interests included playing bridge, crocheting and knitting afghans, helping friends, and providing leadership in church work and AARP. She was an avid reader and had a keen interest in keeping her mind active and current. In her 90’s she continued to do daily crossword puzzles and used her personal computer for email and Internet research. She was a member of the P.E.O. International Sisterhood and member of Chapter AU in Blacksburg for 38 years.
Her husband of 43 years, Clarence Frederick Genter, and her second husband of 9 years, John Leonard Cain and her siblings, Robert and Edna Mae, and an infant son, David, preceded her in death.
She is survived by one daughter and two sons and their families: Richard “Rick” Louis Genter and wife, Ruth, of Richmond, VA and their son, Nicholas Genter and stepson, Lee Foutz; Nancy Louise Vaughn of Greensboro, NC and son, Thomas “Tom” Scott Vaughn; and Fredric “Fred” Charles Genter of Redwood City, CA and his son, Daniel “Dan” Evan Genter, and daughter, Katherine Allyn “Cassie” Genter. Two stepdaughters, Becky Cain and Jennifer Cain both of Atlanta, GA and several nieces and nephews, also survive her.
A memorial service will be held at Blacksburg Presbyterian Church at 1:30 p.m., Sunday, November 22, 2015, with the Reverend Dr. Catherine Taylor officiating. The family will receive friends after the service in the church’s Fellowship Hall. Private inurnment with the family only will be held before the memorial service at the Blacksburg Presbyterian Church All Saints Columbarium.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to: Blacksburg Presbyterian Church 701 Church Street SE, Blacksburg, VA 24060; Sojourn Center (New River Valley hospice house project) P.O. Box 295 Blacksburg, VA 24063; Presbyterian Children’s Home of the Highlands 425 Grayson Road Wytheville, VA 24382; or a charity of your choice. Arrangements by McCoy Funeral Home, 150 Country Club Drive, SW, Blacksburg, (540) 552-3211.