Memorial Service for Margaret Yesso Watson: Aug. 29, 1943 to June 26, 2016

Fremont, CA— Margaret Yesso Watson, age 72, died at her home in the Warm Springs district of Fremont on Sunday, June 26. Peggy as she was affectionately called, was born and grew up in Conneaut, Ohio, part of a first and second generation Hungarian immigrant community. Peggy earned a B.A. from Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio and a master's in library science from the University of Denver in Colorado. After completing graduate school, Peggy moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Peggy's life was changed during her travels to India and Nepal in the early 1970s. On that trip she met her future husband of over 40 years, Don Watson, an Australian civil engineer. In the 1970s, Peggy and Don traveled by van, via ferry at times, from London south through Spain and Morocco, through West Africa, including Nigeria, Cameroon, and the Congo through to South Africa, camping along the way.

Peggy's strongest memory of the trip is the kindness of the people she met in Africa. Other memorable experiences include being rescued by the Algerian military in the Sahara Desert, encounters with lions, chimpanzees, and other wild animals, and catching a ride with one their campground neighbors, only to realize their "seats" in the jeep were bales of marijuana.

Together, Don and Peggy made their home in London, Sydney, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, raised two children, and traveled to more than fifty countries, visited more than forty-five U.S. states, and every Australian state and territory.

Peggy's career in library and information science spanned 50 years. Peggy worked as a public health and medical librarian for Santa Clara County, Technicon Data Systems, and for public health agencies in London and Sydney. She worked as a regional manager for a library placement agency for more than 10 years, where she placed scores of librarians and information professionals in jobs around the Bay Area and consulted and advised on large and complex projects.

Peggy worked as a public librarian for the Oakland and Alameda County Library systems, and she was most proud of her work as Principal Librarian for Alameda County, a position she held for the last 12 years.

As Principal Librarian, Peggy was instrumental in coordinating the construction and opening of new library buildings in Castro Valley, Dublin, and San Lorenzo, from obtaining funding, to project management, to expanding the collections and staff. She was also dedicated to expanding library services to underserved populations, working at the forefront of digital lending, and was a strong advocate for library-related intellectual freedom issues, such as preventing censorship of library resources and maintaining the privacy of lending records. Peggy loved her work.

She was an active member of numerous library associations, and a frequent speaker at library schools, meetings, and conferences. She generously shared her time and talent, mentoring new librarians and creating a career ladder for library paraprofessional staff, allowing them to become librarians and move into supervisory roles.

Peggy is survived by her husband, Don Watson, by her father's sister Betty Craib, her brother and sister-in-law, John and Judy Yesso, her son and daughter-in-law, Shaun and Erica Watson, her daughter Elizabeth Watson, and grandchildren Drisanna Watson and Malakai Madden. Peggy was a strong presence in her family's life and in the Bay Area library community and will be greatly missed.

A memorial service and reception will be held at the Fremont Congregational Church, where she was a member, on Thursday, July 7th. The family will receive friends at 10 am, with services at 11. In lieu of flowers, donations to Abode Services, an organization serving the homeless in Fremont, or the Alzheimer's Association, are encouraged.

Announcement, photo submitted by the Watson family.