Margaret “Peggy” Tremaine Brace, 90, a 40-year Concord resident, passed away on April 1, 2024.
Peggy was born to Laura and Macgregor Grant of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, and came to New England to attend college. While skiing on the slopes of Mount Washington and folk dancing in Cambridge, she met her husband, William “Bill” Brace.
She and Bill raised three children with whom they shared their love for the outdoors. The family spent several weeks every summer at the Grant cottage on the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.
Peggy’s love of the environment was a strong thread throughout her life. She was an avid gardener and created spectacular perennial gardens and maintained productive crops of blackberries, raspberries, and currants. Her avid birdwatching and conservation interests branched out to include hosting biodiversity days and birding outings with local naturalists.
Peggy’s passion for protecting the environment also led to her advocating for a simple, cheap, and well-proven solution to climate change: the clothesline. She was an outspoken advocate to local and state governments to bring back the clothesline, and was awarded the 2012 Third Middlesex Massachusetts Democrat of the Year award for this effort. “The right to dry” became her hallmark slogan.
She also became deeply fascinated by Concord’s rich literary past and hosted academics, writers, and historians at her home overlooking the Concord River for events focused on the work and life of Henry David Thoreau and other Concord literary luminaries.
She was a regular Town Meeting attendee and vocal advocate for many civic causes throughout the years including Concord’s ban on single-use plastic water bottles.She was a longtime congregation and choir member of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Concord. She was the head of the flower committee there for many years.
Peggy is survived by three children, Colin, Nathaniel, and Sarah, and four grandchildren, Schuyler, Lavinia, Clark and Colin. She is also survived by her brother Charles Grant of St Johnsbury, Vermont.
Peggy’s life will be celebrated during a memorial service at First Parish, 20 Lexington Road, Concord Center on Friday, September 6 at 10 a.m. A reception will follow.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Concord Land Conservation Trust or Massachusetts Audubon Society.
Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord. To share a memory or offer a condolence in Peggy’s online guestbook, visit www.DeeFuneralHome.com.
