Community memorial service plans will be announced for St. Thomas graphic artist Peggy Lyons DeLong, who died of cancer Nov. 18 aboard Lark, the sailboat she shared with her husband, Ike, at the Independent Boat Yard marina.
Ike was by her side as she slipped peacefully into sleep, as was St. Thomas art gallery owner Carol Sirhakis, a friend from their high school days in Peekskill, N.Y., on the Hudson River.
DeLong, who had begun chemotherapy treatments locally last summer, continued to operate her graphic design business located within CET Business Services in Havensight Mall until two days before her death.
She and CET owner Cheryl Thompson had shared work space since 1993, until last summer in Thompson's Havensight Secretarial Services office in the mall building.
DeLong, who operated a graphic design firm in New York City for many years, was an avid sailor. In the early '80s, she was a member of a group of people at New York's South Street seaport who banded together to refit the Ernestina, a century-old tall ship and onetime American packet boat that had come into the possession of the Cape Verde Islands, and sail it back across the Atlantic to Newport, R.I.
"They were raising funds and Peggy donated a lot of design services," her sister Kathie Talbot recalled. "She flew to Portugal and sort of talked her way on board for the sail back. There were maybe 20 crew members, and she was the only woman." Wanting to make the crossing aboard the wooden-masted vessel as faithful as possible to its heyday, Talbot said, they made the 42-day voyage with no motor or modern navigational equipment.
DeLong – then Peggy Lyons – left New York in 1992 to sail her own 30-foot, gaff-rigged schooner, Repose, to St. Thomas, where she took up residence. Several years later, she and another boat liveaboard, a folk-rock musician performing in local nightspots just by the name of "Ike," fell in love. They were married on the deck of the Bottoms Up saloon at Independent Boat Yard. Close friends in the boating community gathered at the nearby Lagoon Saloon for reminiscences shortly after her death.
DeLong is survived by her husband, Ike DeLong; three sisters, Kathie Talbot, Christina Chiaro and Patricia Doane; two sons, Kevin and Robert Toohey; and three grandchildren, Robert's sons, Matthew and Greg, and Kevin's daughter, Kathleen, along with many friends on St. Thomas and in New York.
"Peggy belonged to two waterways," Talbot said. In accordance with her wishes, her body is to be cremated, with her ashes to be divided and scattered off the coast of St. Thomas and in New York Harbor. Both on St. Thomas and in New York, her sister said, "More people thought Peggy was their best friend, and that's a wonderful thing."
Those wishing to do so may make a donation in DeLong's memory in either of two ways:
Checks made out to "the Friends of Karen" will go to an organization that provides support to parents of children with cancer. Those made out to "Kathie Talbot," with "Peggy DeLong Grandchildren Scholarship Fund" written on the "for" line will go toward college assistance for DeLong's grandchildren. Contributions may be mailed to CET Business Services, 106 Buccaneer Mall, St. Thomas 00802, or dropped off at the office. Further information may be obtained by calling Thompson at 776-3424.
