What do Penney Pease and Margaret Wiggum have in common?

 What do Penney Pease and Margaret Wiggum have in common?

=Penelope "Penny" Pease, Linfield Class of 1969, hometown Othello, Adams County, Wash., was Linfield College Spring Festival Queen in 1969. She is shown in a photo in the 1969 Linfield Oak Leaves yearbook Spring supplement being crowed in Linfield's Riley Gym by Gary Puckett of Gary Puckett & the Union Gap American pop group.

 

The April 11, 1969, Oregon Journal of Portland, says Penny was queen of the 66th annual Spring Festival. at Linfield. In reality, what was Linfield May Day ran from its beginning in 1904 until its 65th, in 1968, when Sandra Adams was the last Linfield May Queen. The "Spring Festival" was an attempt to extend the former Linfield May Days’ life. In the March 6, 1970, the Oregonian reported tight money and apathy killed off the Spring Festival. “The Linfield Student Senate voted to abandon the celebration because of lack of funds and student interest.”

 

 =Margaret Wiggum, hometown Everett, Snohomish County, Wash., was Linfield College May Queen in 1941. She married Class of 1941 classmate Homer Groenig. Margaret and Homer are prime characters in their son Matt Groenig's "The Simpsons" animated American sitcom. Margaret Groenig's first name was Simpsonized to "Marge." Homer Groenig's first name stayed the same. The last name of "Wiggum" is also used in The Simpsons. Margaret's parents, Mathias, her father, and Ingeborg, her mother, immigrated to the U.S. from Norway. Apparently, Mathias Americanized his name to "Matt." It's assumed Matt Groenig is named for Grandfather Matt.

In the Oct. 4, 1987, edition of the Portland Oregonian newspaper, with special writer Margaret Wiggum byline, she wrote about salads. In it she says, "My mother was Norwegian, brought up to believe that smorgasbord was designed to reinforce the fairytale about the squirrel who stored nuts in the woods. She took everything that was offered and would have hidden it if she could."

 

Sources: Memory; Oak Leaves; Oregon Journal, May 20, 1967, and April 11, 1969; Oregonian March 6, 1970, and Oct. 4, 1987.