Margaret "Peggy" K. (Kain) Balbach

Margaret passed away in her sleep late on Thursday evening, September 17 at Provena hospital, in Urbana, IL. She was born in 1924 in New Orleans, LA to John Kain and Marie LaPorte. Her brother John was one year older and her sister Rosemary one year younger. As children, the family moved many times along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts following new stationing demands based on their father’s position as a Coast Guard officer. Their final location was in Swampscott, MA, where the family remained. Margaret was educated at Emmanuel College, in Boston, MA, and received a BS degree in biology. She later received an AM degree from Radcliffe College.  For several years, she was a professor at Emmanuel College, and while there received a National Science Foundation faculty award to attend Harvard University for a year, where she studied geology and paleontology.

In 1960, she entered graduate school at the University of Illinois, and there met and married Harold (Hal) Balbach, a fellow student, in 1961.  She received her doctorate in Botany in 1964, and taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago and then in Urbana, where she was the coordinator of the introductory Botany course, which enrolled more than 1,000 students a year. She later taught at Eastern Illinois University. In 1972, she took a year to expand her knowledge of Horticulture, completing numerous courses at the UIUC, and, later, at several extension locations. In 1973, she joined the Agriculture Department at Illinois State University and taught horticulture there until her retirement in 1994.  She attained the rank of full Professor of Plant and Soil Science and founded their Hort-Business program, unique at the time, in which Horticulture students minored in Business, so as to better integrate into the business aspects of prospective employers.

In this career, she created and then taught numerous courses in horticulture and landscape and floral design. Beyond this, she wrote a weekly column on these topics for the Bloomington Pantagraph from 1976 to 2006, followed by several years on the internet at PegBalbach.com. She was a charter member of the Garden Writers of America, and was a Certified Professional Horticulturalist through the American Society for Horticultural Science. Most recently, she became a Champaign County Master Naturalist.

Margaret was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, and her dear cousin Mary Slaton…better known to the public as Dorothy Lamour. She is survived by her husband Harold, of Champaign, IL, her sister Rosemary, of Kirkland, WA, and five nieces and nephews.

Graveside services will be held at 2:00 PM Sunday October 4, 2015 at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Champaign, followed by a reception for friends at the Balbach home. Mittendorf-Calvert Funeral Home in Champaign is in charge of arrangements, and more information may be found on their interim website at chapelhilldixon.com.

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