Peggy Jean Fletcher died on Aug. 20, 2026, at 88. According to an obituary, she passed peacefully in her home due to complications from metastatic breast cancer and congestive heart failure.
Fletcher was a well-known figure in Park City for her work to preserve local history. She helped save the town’s historic Glenwood Cemetery and grow the local senior center.
Fletcher was born in Colorado in 1938. She moved to Park City as a newlywed in 1963 and fell in love with the mining town. Cheryl Soshnik, a friend of 15 years, said Fletcher did all she could to preserve the community’s history.
“I would pick her up to go places, and I would see her at the museum lectures, and she was at every activity that you could possibly imagine,” Soshnik said. “Everybody notices the lack of her presence because she was so omnipresent everywhere that we went.”
Fletcher kept track of Park City and family history through meticulous records. That’s something her daughter, Jillbette Fletcher, said Peggy Fletcher wanted to be remembered for: organization and frugality.
Those skills allowed Peggy Fletcher to share an extensive family collection with the Park City Museum, including photos and records of her mother-in-law, Blanche Fletcher, who was the oldest native-born Parkite when she died in 1988, and of her husband, Mel Fletcher, who was also civically active in Park City and a pioneering skier.
Jillbette Fletcher said the work kept her mom’s mind sharp.
“She had everything down to the penny,” Jillbette Fletcher said. “She knew what was what, and it kept her mind busy and it kept her busy.”
Peggy Fletcher was also known for her warm and welcoming nature.
Dave Hanscom and Linda McReynolds said Fletcher was their “puzzle queen” at the Park City Senior Center. People couldn’t help but like her, McReynolds said, as she was sweet, helpful and funny.
She could also be feisty. Jillbette Fletcher said her mom became known for her “hold my purse” moments. The saying was coined after Peggy Fletcher signed up to try bobsledding at the Utah Olympic Park in her 80s.
“She goes, ‘Well, you have to be there. And I'm like, ‘Why do I have to be there?’ And her answer was, ‘Well, because you have to hold my purse,’” Jillbette Fletcher said. “My husband and I just both started laughing so hard … and she was dead serious.”
Peggy Fletcher didn’t end up getting on a bobsled because the ride-along was canceled due to lack of enrollment, but that didn’t stop her from pursuing adventure through travel.
Her love for seeing the world started at a young age, Jillbette Fletcher said. Peggy Fletcher used to travel with her parents, then became a flight attendant as an adult to keep up with the passion. Jillbette Fletcher said her mom would even read encyclopedias at night when she was a kid.
“She would start at A and she would just go through and read through different stuff in all of them, and that was part of the reason she loved Jeopardy and her crossword puzzles, and was so good at them,” Jillbette Fletcher said. “She just wanted to have a broader knowledge of everything.”
Peggy Fletcher traveled to over 60 countries, 46 states and all seven continents throughout her life. Many of those trips were with Jillbette Fletcher and her husband, and at each place Peggy Fletcher added a souvenir spoon to her collection.
Together they rode elephants in India, paraglided in Nepal and ziplined through Costa Rica’s rainforests. For Jillbette Fletcher, though, the best memories are the annual road trips to Denver when she was a child.
Peggy Fletcher would pack up Jillbette and her brother, Rex Fletcher, in their antique 1962 Ford Thunderbird to visit her family each year.
“She was always happy to go see her family and take us, and we got to spend all the time with our cousins. Those are really the best childhood memories,” Jillbette Fletcher said. “Including all the memories I spent traveling with her, the time we spent in Denver was always the best.”
Peggy Fletcher’s ashes were buried in the Glenwood Cemetery next to her husband during a private ceremony. She is survived by her two children and four grandchildren.
