PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2023

ONE MORE THING

PILING UP THE PENNIES … AND ADMIRERS Up to age 100, Shirley Meagher walked, sharing the change she found with St. Jude, but no more, sadly

BY PHIL LUCIANO

S tep after step, day after day, Shirley Meagher walked. She walked for exercise. And she walked for St. Jude. During her daily stroll, she would scan her neighborhood for coins, which she collected for the annual telethon for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Over the years, all her picked-up coins likely amounted to thousands of dollars — even into this year, her 100th. “I walk because I think it’s good for me,” she told me this summer. “And I enjoy it. Picking up pennies is just a bonus.” ‘I GREW UP DURING

from Eureka College. She parlayed that diploma into 17 years of teaching kin dergarten at St. Patrick Catholic School in Washington. Her path took other detours — some good, some otherwise. Always wanting to stretch herself, she learned to speak Chinese. Along the way, she was diag nosed with cancer. Beat it. Longevity runs in her family. Several relatives lived well into their 90s, sometimes beyond. “We have genes that don’t want to quit,” she said. Over all her decades, she kept walking. Twelve years ago, at just 88 years old, she moved into the Buehler Home in Peoria. She set out on a new route that was about one-and-a-half miles round-trip. Along the way, she would sometimes say the rosary or admire flowers, making for a pleasant and rhythmic journey. Well, for the most part. At the sight of litter, she often would slam to a stop. “I can’t stand litter,” she groused during a summer walk with me. She leaned over to grab a discarded fast food cup, which she eventually would toss into a trash barrel. She couldn’t pick up all the litter out there. But she did what she could.

It’s hard to imagine a Peoria without Shirley Meagher out and about. Walking had been part of Shirley’s life since childhood. “I grew up during the Depression. And by golly, we walked,” she told me with a chuckle. ‘’I lived a block from Peoria High School. And we walked downtown, we walked to the library, we walked everywhere.” After graduating from Peoria High, Shirley got married and raised five children. Divorced at age 44, she took a new route: She went to college. In 1967, she enrolled as one of the first students at the new Illinois Central Col lege, then earned an education degree Shirley Meagher pauses at the end of her daily walk just before entering St. Philomena Catholic Church for morning Mass. Meagher, 100, walked about 1.5 miles a day, collecting coins along the way for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

THE DEPRESSION. AND BY GOLLY, WE WALKED’ — Shirley Meagher

And knowing Shirley was certainly a bonus. I met her several years ago during one of her morning jaunts. Afterward, we’d trade emails now and then, about this and that, sometimes with updates on her walks. But no more. Last month, as rain fell on her morning walk, Shirley was struck by a car and killed.

98 SEPTEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE