Leaving a Lasting Legacy Players Charlie & Peg Pleasance Take Their Final Bow While The Naples Players were staging their first production in 1953, Peg and Charlie Pleasance were at a community theater in Cleveland on their very first date. Charlie saw Peg at a raucous party and immediately offered to drive her home. She turned him down, but before
leaving, Peg accepted Charlie’s invitation to see
revolutionizing telephone technology with a
Mister Roberts.
superior answering number identifier system.
“But Mister Roberts was sold out,” longtime friend Becky Troop recalls. “So they ended up seeing Arsenic and Old Lace. Charlie had to
The couple had three daughters, Barbara, Penny, and Mary Jane, and encouraged them to appreciate the arts.
get tickets to Mister Roberts for Peg to go out
A trip to the theater is one of daughter Penny’s
with him a second time. And they were married
most treasured memories. “I wanted to see
within the year.”
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—but it was
Peg operated IBM equipment at Standard Oil and Charlie pursued electrical engineering by
a freezing Chicago winter night,” she remembered. “Despite the cold, he took me anyway, because that’s the kind of father he was.” Daughter Barbara remembers her father’s affinity for French culture. “He was an avid Francophile. He loved French food, music, and literature,” she said. Their mother Peg loved to host parties and entertain guests. “She loved history, especially reading about Henry VIII and Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Barbara said. Peg and Charlie brought their love for theater, technology, and the humanities to The Naples Players when they retired to Southwest Florida in 1987. Starting out at the Kon Tiki Theater, Peg
Charlie and Peg PLEASANCE
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worked as an usher while Charlie’s engineering
