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MARGARET “PEGGY”
MORRIS MASOUMI (“Tawala Peggy”) 1947—1994
eggy Morris was born April 16, 1947.
After graduating from California State University at Long Beach, she toured Europe and Mexico and then took up teaching. She joined the Bahá’í Faith when she was twenty—five. Four years later, after listening to a talk by the Hand of the Cause, Dr. Muhájir, Peggy offered to pioneer to Venezuela.
She arrived in December 1976 and began working as a teacher of English as a second language in Maracaibo, where the National Assembly had asked her to live. She served the Faith in this hot and dusty area dedicating herself to work with the Guajiro Indians, who called her “Tawala (sister) Peggy.” She developed radio teaching programs and children’s Class materials in the Guajiro language.
Margaret "Peggy ” Morris Matoumi
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IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997
Peggy married Bahman Masumi [Masoumi], and they had one child, Lua Bahíyyih. At times she was a member of the Spiritual Assembly of Maracaibo, the National Teaching Committee, and the Regional Teaching Committee. She taught children’s classes. She also had the honor of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
After twelve years Peggy was obliged to return to the United States for health care. She was diagnosed as having a form of cancer which, at first, was thought to be treatable. Peggy and Bahman tried to return to Venezuela but were unable to find jobs. After consulting with the National Assembly of the United States and asking the Universal House ofjustice for guidance, they decided to pioneer on the homeftont. On the eve of Peggy’s trip to investigate job possibilities in the southern United States, she became ill again, and it was determined that the cancer had spread. This time little hope was offered.
When word reached Venezuela, several of the Guajiro friends traveled to Maracaibo to record a message for Peggy. This cassette brightened her last days and gave her a sense of fulfillment for the services she had rendered. In essence the Guajiro friends had said to her, “Peggy, we will never forget you, and we want you to know that we are trying to take your place. Where before, you had to come and pull us out of our hammocks and make us go out with you, now no one has to do that. We have taken the reins of service to the Faith into our own hands. We know what we have to do.”
The movement from place to place stretches the boundaries of our hearts and our countries. The northern border of Venezuela easily reached out to include California, and Peggy continued to feel a part of the Venezuelan community. “When the phone rings at 3:00 AM I always know
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it is Venezuela calling,” she said. (People often forgot the four-hour time difference.)
During Peggy’s last few months she suffered a great deal of physical pain and anguish for the ten—year—old daughter she would leave behind. At the same time that she searched for acquiescence, she was concerned about teaching the Faith. She said several times to her husband, “We must be careful. People know we are Bahá’ís, and they are watching to see how we beat up under these difficulties.”
Her home in Maracaibo was seldom without overnight guests, as was her home in California. “We must be more hospitable,” she said in her last weeks. “We must make people feel welcome." Often she woke from a semiconscious state with the name of Baha’u’llah on her lips or a prayer she had memorized. She showed in her inner and outer life her devotion to the Faith.
Peggy passed away October 15, 1994. One of the Guajiro friends offered this tribute:
Peggy never seemed like a stranger. No matter where you took her, she never seemed to feel out of place. No matter what she was ofl’ered to eat, she received it with thanks and accepted to be one of the family. She was a very simple person, not hard to please. She was a Wayu (Guajiro), like us.
At her funeral Bahman spoke of how Peggy had always struggled to improve herself, and someone said to him afterward, “I thought she was just born a saint. You mean she had to work on it? Then there is hope for me also.” Several weeks after the funeral Bahman met a person who worked at the hostel where Peggy passed away. “Oh,” the person said, “That was your wife. What a wonderful woman, always smiling.”
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Memorial services for Peggy were held in places as diverse as Los Angeles, California, Tabrl'z, Iran, and Maracaibo, Venezuela. At her funeral messages were read from the National Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, the National Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Venezuela, the Bahá’í International Community, the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís Of Maracaibo, and friends who were unable to attend, including one young adult who had belonged to her children’s class in Maracaibo. The Universal House of Justice sent the following message on October
23, 1994:
GRIEVED TO LEARN OF THE PASSING OF MRS. PEGGY MASOUMI WHO HAS SERVED THE FAITH WITH VALOUR ESPECIALLY IN THE PIONEER FIELD. OFFERING PRAYERS IN THE HOLY SHRINES FOR THE PROGRESS OF HER SOUL AND FOR THE HEALING AND COMFORT OF HER FAMILY.
The children of the Glendale, California, public school system, where she taught briefly before her death, named their newly completed park “Peggy Masumi’s Park” and inaugurated it on Earth Day. A Latino teaching campaign in her name was organized in Los Angeles, and the Assembly of Maracaibo gave six months’ contributions to the Arc Fund in her name.
Diane Hufl
