Friend: Goldberg Was 'Hell of a Woman'

More than 100 people gathered on Agate Street on Friday evening to honor the memory of Margaret Ann Goldberg—also known as Peggy Duffy—with a candlelight vigil.

Police believe that Russell Scott Goldberg, Peggy Goldberg's ex-husband, shot and killed her Wednesday morning. Russell Goldberg fled the state, and he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the middle of Interstate 15 in Utah after a three-hour standoff.

At the vigil, friends and neighbors remembered Peggy Goldberg as a woman who opened her heart to everyone, loved to laugh, and was always upbeat.

"She would have loved (the vigil)," said Sally Wagner, who considered Goldberg to be one of her closest friends. Others agreed, with one person even noting that she would have loved everything but the tears at the gathering.

"She was so kind to my kids … always smiling," Wagner told attendees during the ceremony.

Other friends spoke about Goldberg.

"She's my best drinking buddy," Donna Robinson-Wright, who had known Goldberg for 17 years, said with a laugh. "She was like a sister to me … I was closer to her than my own sisters."

Even through the bitter divorce and ensuing custody battle between Peggy and Russell Goldberg, Peggy Goldberg was "the epitome of taking the high road," Robinson-Wright said. "She gave her life, literally, for her children."

Robinson-Wright also called for the neighborhood to pray for Goldberg's children. A custody hearing is scheduled Monday to determine whether they should live with Russell Goldberg's family in the South Bay or Peggy Goldberg's relatives in New York.

Richard Lense, an attorney who said he knew Peggy Goldberg for 10 years, said Goldberg always remained upbeat and never felt sorry for herself.

"I personally saw her go through the personal and the financial jihad" of the custody battle, he told the crowd. "I never saw anybody persevere as well as she did…

"She was a hell of a woman."

Goldberg will be buried in New York.

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