LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE/Gray News) – A husband is seeking answers after his wife of nearly 50 years was hit and killed by a speeding driver while on a walk just a few minutes from her home. Investigators are still working to find those responsible.
Margaret Preble, or Peggy as she was known to friends and family, went on a short evening walk last Monday near her home in La Grange, Kentucky, as she did often. In an area without any sidewalks, the long and winding Highway 42 worked as a path the 75-year-old would walk beside, WAVE reports.
She left her home around 5:30 p.m., enough time to get a walk in before dark set in. Her husband, Larry Preble, was at home chopping firewood.
“When it started to get dark, I gave her a call, and she didn’t answer. It went straight to voice[mail],” said Larry Preble, choking back tears as he began to tell the story of the worst night of his life.
He knew something was not right when he checked the location of his wife’s phone.
“She was about 1,000 feet up the road. I thought, ‘Oh, she’ll be home in five minutes.’ And I waited, but she didn’t come,” he said. “So, I got in my car and drove slowly up the street, and I found her in the grass, face down.”
Larry Preble would give his bloodied and battered wife CPR and try to clear her airway, but nothing worked.
“I knew it was too late. She was already cold,” he said. “I found out later that she had severe chest trauma and lung damage.”
EMS arrived soon after, taking over CPR. It didn’t take long before one of them told Larry Preble, whose hands and mouth were covered in his wife’s blood, that “she never had a chance.”
“I had just a moment to lie down in the grass next to her and hold her, but I never really got to say goodbye,” Larry Preble said, crying.
Investigators later told Larry Preble his wife had been hit by a car that was going very fast. The driver never stopped. His one solace is that the coroner believes she likely did not suffer; though her injuries were extensive.
Just one year into retirement and 52 years of life together, Larry Preble’s Peggy was stolen away in an instant.
“She was an easy, open, outgoing, loving, caring and very giving person,” he said.
Margaret’s smile was infectious, drawing Larry Preble in from the moment they met in Nashville, Tennessee, all those years ago. At the time, he had been in another relationship, and Margaret never thought she would get married. How wrong they both were.
Margaret would move to St. Louis, Missouri, for school to become a chiropractor. Soon after, Larry Preble followed, also pursuing a career as a chiropractor.
It would take no time at all, and the two were married on a sunny day in 1976, with Larry Preble a few years younger than his bride.
“Neither one of us cared about that,” Larry Preble said. “In fact, years later, she joked and said, ‘You know, women last longer than men. So, I really don’t want to hang around too long if you’re gonna go.’ Which was so sweet.”
A move to La Grange was just around the corner as the two took over a clinic owned by one of their professors. The Kentucky countryside captivated Margaret Preble, and they soon found a home there along Highway 42 and never left.
For four decades, Margaret Preble sat at her living room window, watching the birds eat from her handmade birdfeeders. She decorated her home every holiday, which now is covered in the colors of fall. She was a great hostess, a loving mother and a life partner to her husband of 48 years.
The couple were well known in the bicyclist community around Louisville, leading rides for large groups. Margaret Preble always packed the snacks. But they were most recognizable for their tandem bike, which they began to ride together in 2002.
“That made it perfect,” Larry Preble said. “She could do what she was able to do and wanted to do, and I could do what I was able to do and wanted to do, and we were never separated by more than a couple of feet.”
That was the perfect depiction of how they were: it was just the two of them, riding tandem through life, always together.
But it will never be that way again, as Larry Preble continues his search for answers.
“I don’t have any feelings left for anger or for hate. Just grief,” he said. “But I still can’t understand how they could do that, hit someone at that speed and then just keep going.”
Larry Preble is now preparing for a celebration of life service in December to honor his wife’s memory with those who loved her most.
Meanwhile, police are still working to learn more about the person(s) responsible for Margaret Preble’s death. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at (502) 222-1300 or online at OCPD Report a Tip or Crime.
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