Pegge Parker Hlavacek

During World War II Margaret Lyons began her career as an advice columnist, adopting the pen name Pegge Parker. She began literally writing her way around the world. Before long, she was headed for China where she met and married Douglas Mackiernan, an undercover CIA agent.

Doug was killed by border guards near Tibet, leaving Pegge a single mother, and Pegge would soon meet John Hlavacek, the United Press Bureau Chief she would remain joyfully married to for the rest of her life.

John and Pegge spent the first five years of their marriage in India, a brief time in New York, and then off to Jamaica to cover news events during a turbulent period in Latin American history. Pegge passed away in 2008 after a long battle with Alzheimer's.

Pegge is the author of "Diapers on a Dateline: The Adventures of a United Press Family in India During the 1950s", "Alias Pegge Parker", and co-author of "Freelancing in Paradise: The Story of Two American Reporters Who Supported Their Family by Covering Turbulent Times in the Caribbean, 1958-1963. Her husband, John, also compiled many of the 'Teen Topics columns she wrote into a book titled "'Teen Topics By Pegge Parker".