Margaret (Peg) Ahlness died Sunday, December 28 at her home in Bismarck after a valiant battle with cancer. A Celebration of Life service will be held at the Touchmark chapel in Bismarck Friday, January 2, at 2 pm CT. A funeral service will be held Monday, January 5, at 1 pm MT/2 pm CT at Bowman Lutheran Church in Bowman, with burial to follow in the Tuttle Cemetery at Rhame.

Margaret Ann (Peggy) Jock was born to Gordon and Jean (McLennan) Jock in Flint, Michigan on July 5, 1934. She was salutatorian of a large class at Flint Northern High School in 1951 and went on to Flint Junior College on a tennis scholarship. Her studies continued at the University of Michigan, where she earned a BS in physical therapy. She later entertained her young children by showing them exactly how you would limp, depending on which muscle you had injured. “Gluteus maximus!” she would shout, and then we’d all limp accordingly down the hallway in fits of giggles.

Early in her career, Peg worked particularly with polio patients, some in iron lungs and others learning to walk again. While working as a young PT at Wayne County Hospital in Detroit, a patient introduced her to the young resident Dr. Paul Ahlness, whom she married in 1958. Soon after, they loaded up their two cars with all their worldly possessions and drove to North Dakota, where Paul had been invited to practice general medicine in Bowman, near his hometown of Rhame. Peg, who had always lived in large cities and had never been outside of Michigan, was underwhelmed by the small town—which didn’t even have paved roads at the time! She was also aghast that there was no fastpitch softball being played there—she was a pitcher and disdained slow-pitch softball as “not a real sport.”

Still, she adapted and came to love the prairie, remaining a resident of Bowman for the next 63 years. She did physical therapy when called upon by the doctors, but the next years were mostly dedicated to raising her children: Hans Peter, born in 1961, and Ann Elizabeth (Lisa) born in 1962. She and Paul were also very active in the community. They enjoyed participating in the Civil Air Patrol. Peg also served on such boards as that of the Badlands Human Service Center in Dickinson; the Sunset Home; the Bowman Lutheran Church Council; and the Library Board, among others. She volunteered for the Mental Health Association of ND, the Pioneer Trails Regional Museum, and the Bowman Regional Public Library—where she helped digitize years of the local newspaper.

After both kids got off to college, Peg said, “My turn!” and left for the University of Minnesota to pursue an advanced degree in medical anthropology. She would do one quarter in-residence, take one off, then return. It was energizing for her.

As Peg’s interest in anthropology grew, she participated in archeological digs at the Rainy Buttes near New England, ND, as well as several in Belize and Mexico. She would go on a dig, raft down jungle rivers and camp in the wild (with others) and meet Paul at a more civilized hotel at the end.

Peg and Paul were both voracious readers. They loved to travel; they took the kids throughout the southwestern US and returned often to see family in Michigan. When Paul was recovering from two hip replacements, they traveled to China and Eastern and Western Europe, but spent much of their time exploring in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and in Central America, particularly Guatemala. This was both therapeutic and fascinating.

In 2021, though it was hard to leave Bowman, Peg made the decision to move to Bismarck, close to Lisa. She enjoyed her years at Touchmark, meeting new people and helping organize the library there.

Peg is survived by her daughter, Lisa (VanVechten Crane), of Bismarck; daughter-in-law, Jane Ahlness (Tim Zimprich) of Aneta, ND; five grandchildren: Alexandra Tintes (Mike), Carly Crane (Alexander Kaib), Amy Crane, Sean Ahlness, and Joel Crane; and two nieces and four nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Paul, in 1995; son, Hans in 2016, one nephew, Jim Stebinger; parents, Gordon and Jean Jock; and in-laws, Hans and Frieda Ahlness.