Peggy Duke Urban

Peggy Duke Urban, 95, of Amarillo, went home to her Lord and Savior on October 27, 2026, surrounded by her family.

Peggy Leora Merydith was born July 22, 1931, to Rachel and Coy Merydith. She was raised in rural Booker, growing up at Valley Park Ranch in Lipscomb County, and graduated from Booker High School.

In 1949 she married C. T. Duke and moved to the Duke Ranch, settled by C.T.’s grandfather in 1886 and ranched by the Duke family for seven generations under the cross brand, carried on the left hip since the first Duke ran cattle there. Peggy raised her family on the ranch and gave the better part of seven decades to it. In 1965 she and C.T. built a new house a short distance north of the old Duke home and made it the family home.

She and C.T. raised three children on the ranch: Barbara Sheryl, John Charles, and Kevin Cruise.

She served the Booker Christian Church as program chairman of the ladies group and on the Parsonage Building Committee, and she ran the church library and kept it open to the public. In her Amarillo years she made her church home at Freedom Bible Church, where she remained a faithful and active member.

Peggy gave as much of herself to Lipscomb County as she did to her own family. She was a proud member of the Calico CowBelles, an organization that promoted the beef industry and the ranching life she had been raised in, serving three terms as president and on the Texas Calico CowBelles Executive Board, and with the American National CowBelles as Regional Chairman and a member of the Legislative Committee. She served several terms as precinct chairman for the Republican Party and worked to establish debates and bring candidates to the county so her neighbors could meet the people who would represent them. She served on the Booker Hospital District as secretary and treasurer, on the A-95 Review Board of the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission and as a health consumer with its Health Systems Agency, and with the Lipscomb County Historical Society, and she was the first chairman of the Darrouzett Deutsches Fest, begun to preserve the area’s German heritage. She had a hand in the Teare Clinic as well.

Her signature work was Kiowa Kountry. Learning while she served on the Community Evaluation and Planning Committee that Booker wanted an organization for its seniors, she set about gathering the knowledge, the people, the furnishings and the workers, and she led it as chairman until her retirement. When the organization held a surprise reception in her honor at the Kiowa Kountry Activity Center, the Booker paper reported that “easily the most surprised person” there “was . . . Peggy Duke.” Congressman Beau Boulter presented her with a United States flag that had flown over the nation’s Capital. Mike McQueen of the Area Agency on Aging said that if there were more people like her, “can’t do” wouldn’t be in the vocabulary. The room sang “Here She Is, Booker’s Peggy Duke” to the tune of the Miss America theme. Peggy accepted the tribute on behalf of the board of directors and then named, one by one, every other person who had helped build the place. “It’s real tricky of you all,” she said, “but I’m thrilled to death and honored to be here and hear all these things.” She was already working on what came next — a convalescent care facility, the spot for it picked out.

She never lost interest in the world or in her obligations to it — and even in her final days, she made certain her ballot was cast and counted during early voting in the midterm election.

In partnership with her daughter Sheryl she started a business, D&N Associates, and she became a senior supervisor with Shaklee — work that kept her traveling across the country for years and that she and Sheryl, both strong health advocates, shared and cherished for decades. The business continues to thrive today, managed now by her grandson, Coby Nichols.

In 1984 the Booker Booster Club honored her and C.T. as its Best Boosters. “Wherever she travels she is an ambassador for Booker,” a friend said at the banquet. “She remembers faces and names and they remember her. She is ready to do all of the behind-the-scenes jobs when others need her.” Peggy turned that credit elsewhere too: “I am so appreciative. I appreciate your support of the senior citizens because they truly deserve it.”

C.T. died December 14, 1993. She later married Bob Urban, who preceded her in death in 2008. In her last years she lived in Amarillo, near her family.

Peggy’s faith was steady and was passed along to her family. She buried her son John in 2020 and her daughter Sheryl in 2024, and through all of it she remained the center the family gathered around.

She is survived by her son, Kevin Duke and his wife, Sherri, of Tulsa, and their children, Ashley, Michael and his wife Savannah, and Madison and her husband Alex; her grandsons, Brett Duke and his wife, Micah, of Darrouzett, and Cruise Duke of Follett; her grandson, Coby Nichols, and his partner, Armando Pando, of Amarillo; her great-grandchildren, Harper Duke, Caroline Duke, Sophie Marie Duke, and Margot Lee Balli; her daughter-in-law, Velrick Wilson, of Amarillo; her sister-in-law, Dolores Cross, and her daughters, Barbara German and Mary Barton, and their families; her nieces and nephews, Jan Hodges Ryan and her husband, Arthur, Bill Merydith and his wife, Donna, Matt Thompson and his wife, Tammy, Becky Munsell and her husband, Dusty, and Linda Smith and her husband, Mitch, and their families; and many cousins and lifelong friends across the Panhandle.

She was preceded in death by her husbands, C. T. Duke and Bob Urban; her daughter, Sheryl Duke Nichols; her son, John Charles Duke; her granddaughter, Brooke Nichols; her son-in-law, Garland Nichols; her parents, Rachel and Coy Merydith; her parents-in-law, Dulcie and Cruise Duke; her sisters, Pearl Thompson and Joyce Merydith Hodges, and their husbands, Leroy Thompson and James Hodges; her brother, Ed Merydith, and his wife, Lois; her brother-in-law, Larry Cross; and her niece, Debbie Herrington.

Over the years this family has been held up by people who do not share its name, and they are owed more than a line. Dalia Evans kept and managed Peggy’s home in Amarillo for nearly two decades and became a family friend in the doing. Lupe Garcia came to the family during her daughter Sheryl’s illness and stayed on to care for Peggy until her passing; her loyalty and steady presence carried the family through years it could not have come through alone. Kevin Hill, foreman of the Duke Ranch, along with his wife, Randi, and their family, has kept the ranch running through the family’s hardest seasons. And Alice McConnaughey gave years of loving care and friendship the family will not forget.

A graveside service will be held Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. at Lipscomb Cemetery in Lipscomb, Texas, under the direction of Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors. Friends of the family are welcome.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Brooke Nichols Scholarship at Texas Tech University: Texas Tech Foundation, Inc., TTU System Financial Services — Memo: Brooke Nichols Scholarship Endowment Fund, PO Box 45025, Lubbock, Texas 79409-5025; to the John C. Duke Scholarship, WTAMU Foundation, Box 60766, Canyon, Texas 79016; to Kiowa Kountry, PO Box 201, Booker, Texas 79005; or to the charity of your choice.

Let all that you do be done in love.

— 1 Corinthians 16:14