HOWELL – Centenarians are rare people, and their ranks diminished by one last week with the passing of former longtime Howell resident Ira Peavy.
Peavy’s was a life well lived, and his epitaph can be summed up in the words of his daughter Nancy Shapiro, who spoke on behalf of his family. Speaking of her father’s legacy and longevity, Shapiro said she aspired to the same thing, “as long as I can be like he was, bright, aware, mobile and involved right to the end.”
Shapiro said her father was lucid in his thoughts and conversation until the day he died.
Peavy, 100, died on Feb. 27 at the assisted living facility that had become his home recently when his advanced years and failing health made it impossible for his daughter to continue to see to his needs at home.
Peavy was as crazy about his daughters as they were about him, and he reveled in the time spent with them, his six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His family honored him inMay 2007 when he celebrated his 100th birthday.
Among the highlights at Peavy’s 100th birthday party were the accolades he received from the president, the governor and from former HowellMayor Timothy J. Konopka, whom Peavy considered to be a good friend.
Konopka remembered Peavy this week, saying, “He was a truly wonderful gentleman who had an amazing memory, personal charm and witty sense of humor. Of all the people I have gotten to know through politics, he is without a doubt my all-time favorite. He was an original. A real American treasure.”
Konopka said although Peavy was a registered Democrat, he had been known to cross party lines if he thought the better candidate was on the other side.
Peavy was born at home inManhattan in 1907 to a well-educated mother who was a college graduate, something rare for a woman of her day. He remembered stories of the California Gold Rush of 1849 as they were told to him by his grandfather, who was a “49’er” in that search for gold.
Peavy’s mother’s wedding ring was made from gold her father brought back from the California gold rush. Both of his daughters wore their grandmother’s “49’er” wedding ring on their own wedding day.
During World War II, Peavy served in the military as a member of the Signal Corps and also as a functional swimming instructor, which he said entailed teaching troops how to keep from drowning while swimming fully dressed and wearing a backpack and a steel helmet.
Peavy’s first wife, Francis, whom he married in 1941, served as an Army reporter and wrote depositions for the Nuremberg Trials. She died in 1983.
Peavy later married his second wife, Clara, who died in 1997.
Peavy had been a resident of The Villages adult community in Howell since 1980 and served as the community’s homeowners association president until resigning the position in 1988.
Peavy served as a director of the former Howell Township Municipal Utilities Authority from 1988-92.

