Margaret “Peggy” A. (Ahearn) Kokernak

Margaret A. (Ahearn) Kokernak, 90, of Marlborough, MA, and formerly of Clinton, MA, died Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at New Horizons of Marlborough, MA.

She was the daughter of the late Charles and Mary (Smith) Ahearn and the wife of the late Edward F. Kokernak, who died in 1986.

Peggy was born in Marlborough on February 5, 1935. She graduated from St Michael’s Academy in Hudson in 1952.  She went on to a course of study at Wyndham Boston, completing the program in June of 1953. She married Edward Kokernak July 27, 1979.  As had been the family tradition, Peg and Eddie remained in the family home taking care of her mother Mary C. Ahearn, who had cared for her mother and brother at the same 14 Elm Staddress. From an early age Peg loved to travel. Early on were car trips with parents and siblings to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Washington D.C., Colonial Williamsburg VA, and ski trips with friends. She experienced air travel for the first time in 1969 when she visited California with her sister Mary and Mary’s family.  Peggy’s travels continued when she met Eddie, and they focused on New England states with a few excursions to points as far south as the Caribbean.  After Eddie’s passing Peggy’s friends, and there have been many, gathered around her and accompanied her to destinations reaching from the homestead in Marlborough to Europe and as far as Australia.

Peg moved from the family nest at the spry age of 60 and spent the next 29 years of her life in her condo at Ridgefield Circle in Clinton. From Clinton, she continued to travel the world with friends.

Peggy is predeceased by her siblings and their spouses: Mary (Ahearn) and Henry Vaillancourt, Betty (Ahearn) and Norman Bonney, Charles and Helen (Morel) Ahearn and John and Nathalie (Martel) Ahearn. Also predeceasing her stepchildren Eddie’s son Thomas and two daughters Janice and Ellen.

Peggy’s life has been enriched by nieces, nephews, stepchildren, step grandchildren and step greatgrandchildren!  She is survived by two nephews of her sister Mary, Paul and his wife Lynda Vaillancourt of Montrose CO and John and Judy Vaillancourt of Holliston MA, her brother Charles’ daughters, Susan Peltier of Marlborough and her sister Jane and her husband Bart Steele of North Attleboro, John's children, Christine Ahearn, of Lowell, Mark Ahearn and his wife Debby, Steve Ahearn, Neil Ahearn and his wife Joanne, and Jeffrey Ahearn and his wife Nola, all of Hudson, MA.  Her Kokernak family includes Eddie’s surviving children Gerald and his wife Ann of Sterling and Ann Marie Cleary and her husband Joe of Ogunquit ME and many step grandchildren and step great grandchildren!

Peggy was a trend setter in the workplace. At a very young age her work life started with the electric company, and she built a career that progressed through ever more challenging roles.  In today’s vernacular we’d say she “hung on” through many mergers and acquisitions amongst them, Mass Electric, Rhode Island-Eastern Massachusetts-Vermont Energy Control (REMVEC) and ultimately retiring from National Grid in the role of Supervisor of Collections.

A wake will be held at Slattery Funeral Home, 40 Pleasant Street, Marlborough, MA on Sunday, April 27, 2025, from 3:00-5:00 PM.  A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:00AM on Monday, April 28th, 2025, at St. Matthias Church, 409 Hemenway St., Marlborough, MA 01752. Burial will follow at the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Marlborough.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Myositis Association, Columbia, MD, Faith and Family Hospice Center, Marlborough, MA, or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

To send flowers the family is coordinating floral arrangements through The Floral Gallery in Marlborough.  Click the link or call (508) 480-9952.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Margaret “Peggy” A. (Ahearn) Kokernak, please visit our floral store.