BAKKEN FAMILY

Grandfathers Family	Grandmothers Family	KIMMEL AND LULU THOMAS	PERRY AND SARAH JOHNSON
Fathers Family		JESSE AND JUANITA CELESTE THOMAS
DAVE AND PEGGY BAKKEN
Photos from Roberta Thomas Email: dbakken@aginet.com

Married 1972.

David Bakken had four children from a previous marriage, Karen, Karl, Gail, and Wendy.
Peggy Thomas had a son, Michael, who later dissapeared.

When Peggy and Dave married, they rasied the four children of David's and Micahel.

Dave and Peggy retired in Southern Shores, North Carolina. A nice house on the water's edge.

Peggy Thomas Bakken died October 5, 2007 at home in Southern Shores. Her ashes went to her home town of Perryton Tx. She had been slowly fading away for years, having to give up her painitng long before she died. Her short term memory went long before she did.

Southern Shores - Peggy Thomas Bakken, 81, died October 5, 2007 after a long illness.
She was professor Emeritius from Marymount University in Arlington Va. where she was honored in 1972 as an Outstanding Educator of America. After retiring she served her community on the Board of Adjustment, manned the crisis call center and was on the board of the Outer Banks Hotline. She was a member of Duck United Methodist Church and the Duck Woods Country Club.
She is survived by her husband David Bakken, a brother William R. Thomas of Phoenix, four step children and numerous nieces and nephews.
An 11am memorial service will be held at Duck Church, with internment at a later date in Texas.
Memorial donations may be made to the Outer Banks Hospice, Manteo NC 27954.

My name is Scott Thomas, one of Peggy's nephews. Peggy's brother, who is my father, could not come but he did give me some things he wanted said, which mainly covers her early years.
Peggy Jane Thomas was born on March 8, 1926 to Jesse ray Thomas and Juanita Celeste Thomas at Elton Louisiana, which was in the middle of one of the three Cajon areas in Louisiana. Later that year the family, Mother, Dad, Peggy and a 2 year old brother, moved in a model-T car to Perryton Texas. Perryton was a very small new town that became the northernmost county seat in Texas, only 7 miles from Oklahoma. She lived in a small house that had a hard pack dirt yard that her mother swept daily so Peggy could play in it. The family had a milk cow and chickens and for one year they had two baby alligators, courtesy her Cajon Uncle (Otis) back in Louisiana.
About the time Peggy was in the first or second grade, the family moved from town out to a bare farm. When the family moved to the farm it was in the depression and located a few miles from the geographical center of the dust bowl.
They moved a house from town to live in and made a place for the chickens and a cow. Slowly over the next few years other buildings and fences were added to the farm.
At first the family had kerosene for lamps, cooking, heating the house, and hot a water heater for the Saturday night baths. Later on they upgraded to 6 volt lights which ran off a wind charger and car battery. They went from this to 32 volt DC electricity with big glass batteries and propane for cooking and heating hot water. The farm never got any better.
A big garden was planted and along with raising chickens, hogs, cattle, turkeys, guinea hens, geese, peacocks, and a few other animals, the farm was almost self sufficient, which was a good thing.
Peggy worked with her mother trying to keep as much dust out of the house as was possible and helped her cook what the farm grew and butchered. Butter, fresh milk, cream and eggs were sold weekly to buy the staples, such as salt, pepper, sugar, coffee, rice, and potatoes. Peggy and her mother spent many hours in the kitchen cooking cakes, bread, and all kind of meats, especially chickens which they did not kill but got the job of plucking.
Peggy was very popular in High School and had many friends and was quite active in a number of extracurricular activities.
After high school she went to Baylor University in Waco Texas. She later became a college professor teaching commutations.
Her father died in 1953.
Peggy married her first husband and lived in the Washington D.C. area. She took care of her mother for several years until she died at Peggy's home in 1968. Her first husband died and in 1972 she married David Bakken.
Peggy loved to paint and did quite well with water colors. Some of her work is proudly hung in her surviving relative's homes. She also loved fine arts and enjoyed musicals and drama.
During her life she moved around a bit and always made many good friends. You did not have to see her daily to be a good friend with her, once a friend always a friend.
She will missed by all who knew her.
-William Thomas

Hi, I am Gary Thomas, one of Peggy's nephews.
When David offered me the chance to say a few words today about Aunt Peggy I wasn't sure I could do it, but here goes.
First, of course I have to talk about Texas. I hope you noticed the single yellow rose on the table.
Peggy was from Perryton as am I. If you are from Perryton that is all you need to know - if you are not, here is bit more on the subject. (And be thankful I am reading this since I am a Texan talking about Texas or we'd be here all day.)
Perryton is famous for its scenery. As someone pointed out there are no trees or mountains to block the view.
Perryton is famous for its weather. Lots of places can lay claim to blistering hot sun, dust storms, tornadoes and snow blizzards. Perryton can do all four in one day.
Perryton is famous for growing wheat. In fact it calls itself the Wheatheart of the Nation. Peggy grew up dry-land wheat farming where one spring hail storm can wipe out a whole year's crop.
And Perryton is famous for its people. There are actually a couple of famous ones - Mike Hargrove of the major league baseball fame and Robert O'Rear who helped Bill Gates start Microsoft. But mostly the people in Perryton are warm and generous but with the underlying toughness and resiliency necessary to survive on the high plains.
Peggy was a true daughter of Perryton with roots in the land, intellectual and academic accomplishments, and although she did not look particularly tough, she had an undefeatable spirit that endured to the end.
Her parents died comparatively young, and as everyone here probably knows, she lost her first husband, Walt, and only child, Mike. Crushing losses that might have defeated her, but did not. She and David pulled up stakes and came to the outer banks to reinvent and revive. And did they ever.
That said, Peggy would not want this to become maudlin so let me tell you my favorite story about Peggy -- the story of the flamingoes.
When my wife Joann and I moved to Delaware back in the mid 1980's we started driving down and sharing holidays with Peggy and David. In those days the Christmas Eve services were in the little Duck Church with a circuit rider minister.
As the first Christmas approached we were informed of Peggy and David's personal tradition - that each gift had to have puzzle of some kind that had to be solved before the present could be opened. Usually the puzzle was itself a clue to what was in the box. The gifts of course had to be opened one at a time so that everyone could enjoy the puzzle.
Apparently Peggy and David had started that a few years earlier when all the kids were gone and it was just the two of them. Combining the puzzle solving with mimosas' and sausage balls would cause the Christmas morning to last longer than just a few minutes of tearing paper. In fact with four or five people involved and with time out for Christmas dinner the process could last all day. And that was fine with Peggy who loved a good party.
Once Joann and I were into the puzzle and present mode, we made a discovery - sometimes you had a good puzzle that lacked a gift. And so it was in one of those early holidays that Joann had a puzzle built around the name "Art Deco" but did not have a present that worked with that clue. So, to fill that void we stopped at a hardware store on the way down and bought two plastic pink flamingos.
It had rained that Christmas on the outer banks and the ever present puddle at the end of the drive was there. (Affectionately named Lake Peggy). So once the puzzle was solved and the flamingoes opened, nothing would do but we ran out and put them on the edge of Lake Peggy.
Had nothing else happened, that would have probably been the end of it. We had a good laugh and David would have probably pitched them in the recycle bin as soon as we left. However, later that afternoon one of the neighbors sent over a grown daughter with a plate of brownies and a message that they did not think Pink Flamingoes were suitable for Southern Shores.
Well that did it. Now the Flamingoes were special. The next year Peggy and David added some baby flamingoes and gave them back to us. We sent them back plus a new one the following year and so it went. We even branched out beyond the yard ornaments to include a crystal flamingo to join Peggy's collection of crystal swans, flamingo napkins and coasters, and my person favorite, a toilet plunger with a flamingo head on the handle. (Now that is a niche market!)
The flock went back and forth growing each year until finally Peggy decided that it had all gone on long enough and we should quit. She, of course, decided that in a year when Joann and I had them. Our rejoinder was this - we put a name band around the neck of each bird - there were eight of them by now - and that Christmas Eve we drove down and hid them all over Southern Shores before we reported in to Peggy's house.
The name tag said that the bird was from the Bakken Flamingo Institute of 75 Wild Swan Lane and a reward was offered. We thought they would show up before the holidays were over - but they didn't. In fact they drifted in one at a time over the next several years - much to the delight of Peggy who loved to tell the story to whoever was standing there holding one. At least one person did accept the reward, and there are some that never came back.
So I tell you all that to say ... if you happen to be walking around Southern Shores, and you see a plastic pink flamingo with a name tag around its neck -- please give it a lift home. Peggy would be so pleased.

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