By Edna Ethington
Over 170 family members, friends, parishioners of St. Irenaeus Church and special guests gathered at Cypress Senior Center to celebrate Cypress resident Margaret “Peggy” Coakley’s 90th birthday on September 7, 2019. In addition to local family members, Peggy’s nieces and nephews came from the states of Alaska, Arizona, British Columbia, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and South Carolina.
Guests at the birthday celebration were treated to a delicious Mexican buffet with pork, beef and chicken tacos, rice, bean, chips and salsa prepared by “The Wanted Tacos.” There was a table filled with four colorfully decorated birthday cakes, artistically decorated sugar cookies and cake pops, which were prepared by “Cakes by Marion.” In addition, there were Mexican churros and cupcakes from Sam’s Club, and fruit kabobs, made by Karen Cangey, that were the first desserts to disappear. Another table was filled with an assortment of drinks including margaritas, sangria, pineapple juice, horchata and watermelon juice. The Coakley family members and friends made sure that no one was hungry or thirsty at Peggy’s 90th birthday party!
Peggy’s youngest son, Peter Coakley, and his brother Brian’s wife, Jamie Sims Coakley, were hosts of the party. They welcomed everyone as they arrived. Jamie and Brian later entertained guests with their singing the song “Jackson” with Brian also singing and playing his guitar. They arranged to have the mariachi band, “Trio Mariachi Capri” entertain guests throughout the afternoon and also sing special songs in Spanish to Peggy to celebrate her birthday.
Among the first guests to arrive were Fr. Binh Nguyen, pastor of St. Irenaeus Church. Fr. Binh offered a blessing before meals and a blessing for Peggy for her birthday. Peggy and her late husband, Robert “Bob” Coakley, were members of St. Irenaeus Parish since 1969, so Peggy was pleased to have Fr. Binh come and give his blessings. Peggy and Bob were married for 64 years until Bob’s passing in 2013. Bob was also a former director of St. Irenaeus’ Adult Choir for many years.
Special guests who came to Peggy’s party were four of Peggy’s classmates who graduated with her from St. Anthony’s High School in Long Beach with the Class of 1947. Her classmate, Vicky Sauter came from where she lives in Hacienda Heights. The other three classmates still live in Long Beach. The Long Beach residents who came were Betty Buffington, Katie Campion, and Bob Thompson. Bob Thompson’s daughter, Catherine, brought her father to the party. Peggy and the four other Class of 1947 members s keep their minds sharp by reading books and meeting once a month to discuss the books at Eldorado Park Book Club with Betty Buffington as leader.
Peggy said that she was most happy to see Dr. Daniel Gary Busby, Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Irenaeus Church from 1988 to 1997. She joined the St. Irenaeus Choir after her husband retired as choir director. She said she always enjoyed singing with Gary Busby. Gary said that he retired in 2019 from the staff at the University of California at Irvine, as Professor and Chair of UCI’s Drama Department. He is now Executive Director of MY PHILANTHROPIES in Newport Beach.
At 3:00 p.m., everyone joined in singing “Happy Birthday” to Peggy and were able to choose a piece of cake from one of the four colorful cakes that were displayed on the dessert table. There were a variety of cakes including a large chocolate cake and a huge banana cake. A slice of the banana cake was so large that it took two small paper plates to hold one piece of that cake! Peggy blew out the lighted candles on the smallest cake with one breath!
After everyone had a piece of birthday cake or cookies, different groups of people gathered to be photographed with Peggy. Since Peggy and Bob Coakley had five children and 13 grandchildren, there were many pictures taken of her friends, her classmates and family members Including children, grandchildren, cousins, nephews and nieces, and other relatives.
Peggy said that she had been dreaming about her 90th birthday party on her real birthday on September 1st. Now she will have pictures to look at and remember her fantastic 90th birthday celebration on September 7, 2019 with all her friends and extended family members.
Photos by Edna Ethington
