When Robert Hubbard took Margaret “Peggy” Gianacos to the door after their first date, he closed the evening with, “Thanks for nothing.”
“The feeling is mutual,” she replied. So began the shared lives of a couple who will soon be celebrating their 55th anniversary with five children, fifteen grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Born in Juneau, Alaska, Peggy was raised by her father after her mother left him with 13-month-old Peggy. She remembers helping in the restaurant when she was young where her dad, as cook, kept a pot of Greek food on the stove and Peggy set the tables and dried dishes.
“He was a happy man who looked after me the best he could. He knew everybody.” Her father left Greece during a Civil War where his four brothers were fighting. Friends arranged for him to come to the U.S. by traveling the underground before he moved to Alaska to cook for miners.
When Peggy was in seventh grade, her father began arranging for her to stay with families near his work. She followed her father, traveling alone on trains and boats, to Fairbanks and then Anchorage.
Peggy’s first public singing occurred when she was three while her dad was playing cards. Sing and dance she was told, for her requested taste of beer. “So I sang and danced on the bar and then tasted the foam. It was horrible.”
Self-taught, Peggy, at 12, began singing in a weekly 15 minute radio show as Wee Bonnie Baker of Alaska, a junior replica of a popular singer there. “We were about the same size but had different voices,” petite Peggy said.
When World War II broke out, Peggy was singing on Sundays for a service in a military hanger. “A guy comes down the aisle, and said ‘Don’t be scared but I’m going to carry you out of here.’
He threw me over his shoulder, took me to the door, put me down and shouted, ‘They bombed Pearl Harbor. We’re at war.’ The chairs flew. I was 14.”
Her father moved to Dutch Harbor and Peggy was sent by train to Seward where she was met by a woman who accompanied her to Seattle. Seward had just burned, the boat was delayed and they found refuge in a private home. The usual 60-hour trip to Seattle took over a week of cautious quiet travel with black outs to avoid Japanese subs.
On board, there was dancing. A popular male partner departed in Ketchikan accompanied by the FBI. He was a spy.
Living with her dad again, Peggy completed high school in Renton. She heard Tommy Dorsey’s Band was in town when she was on the graduation program committee, so she asked if they would play for the dance. They did.
“I wasn’t afraid to do anything.” Her father refused her invitation to travel with the band. It was no life for his daughter. Peggy agreed.
“I was a plumber for Boeing when I was 17 because I could fit in airplane wings with little plumbing things.” Afterwards, she worked as a secretary for Civil Service. She still sang at Seattle ballrooms and then the Ft. Lawton Officers’ Club for two years while she moved to Boeing as secretary to the department head of 100 engineers.
Bob was born and raised in upstate New York. He returned after three years in the Navy and completed engineering school on the GI bill. A Boeing recruiter encouraged his 1952 move to Seattle for $300 monthly and assignment to Peggy’s workplace. Peggy laughs as her reserved husband explains, “She was not someone for me, too upfront.” After the disastrous first date when Peggy danced and Bob didn’t, he found redeeming qualities.
Leaving Boeing after 22 years, Bob was employed with the University of Washington as an applied physics research scientist. His hydrodynamic design of an autonomous underwater vehicle used for data gathering is a valued accomplishment.
For ten years, every weekend was spent skiing or backpacking with their youngsters. They took four of their children, ages 11 to 15, to Europe for three months in 1972 and camped in a VW bus. When returning, they discovered their airline was bankrupt and their tickets not accepted. Since then, they have sailed the Greek Isles and traveled Ireland.
The couple renovated their Kent home before coming to Lopez in 1977. Bob continued work until 1985 and Peggy was employed at Lopez School which their youngest daughter attended. They built a log home, worked on a 42-foot sailboat for a year and were off to Mexico, learning to sail as they went. Four years later, Peggy flew home and Bob sailed 46 challenging days from Cabo San Lucas to Lopez.
“We’ve always been busy, laughed a lot, tried to be ourselves, live a simple life,” Peggy said.
“You have to know when to kickback,” Bob added. “Wave when you go by.”
