Peg Malloy named St. Patrick’s Day Grand Marshal

Margaret “Peg” Malloy has long worked to help her community, influenced by her Irish heritage and the story of Catherine Ann “Kate” Barnard, a pioneering social reformer and Oklahoma’s first woman elected to statewide office.

For these and other reasons, Malloy has been named grand marshal for Oklahoma City’s 2026 Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, set for March 14 in Stockyards City.

Malloy’s dedication to community service runs deep in her Irish ancestry. Her father’s grandparents were Irish immigrants from Cork and Dublin, while her paternal great-grandparents came from Connemara, near Galway. Her grandfather moved to Oklahoma during statehood and became Tulsa’s first district attorney. Her family had political connections and understood the Irish were not always treated kindly after emigrating to the United States.

Malloy, a parishioner at The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City, has volunteered for many civic organizations and remembers marching in the city’s first Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. parade as president of the Metropolitan Fair Housing Council, a nonprofit fair housing enforcement and advocacy organization.

She served with the Junior League, led the National Conference of Christians and Jews, volunteered for the Oklahoma City Arts Council for more than 25 years, chaired the first WinterTales storytelling festival and served as the first president of Prairie Dance Theater. Today, Malloy helps lead the O’klahoma Irish Heritage Society.

“If you can, you should,” Malloy said of her philosophy of service.

Proceeds will benefit Catholic Charities’ Sanctuary Women’s Development Center, located in Stockyards City. 

Malloy said she chose the Sanctuary Women’s Development Center in part because of Barnard’s story as a champion of child labor laws, education, prison reform and protections for Native American orphans.