Legacy Giving
A Lasting Legacy
Players Charlie & Peg Pleasance Take Their Final Bow
While The Naples Players were staging
their first production in 1953, Peg & 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
Mister Roberts.
“But Mister Roberts was sold out,” longtime
friend Becky Troop recalled. “So
they ended up seeing Arsenic and Old
Lace. Charlie had to get tickets to Mister
Roberts for Peg to go out with him a second
time. And they were married within
the year.”
Peg operated IBM equipment at Standard
Oil and Charlie pursued electrical
engineering by revolutionizing telephone
technology with a superior answering
number identifier system. The couple
had three daughters, Barbara, Penny, and
Mary Jane, and encouraged them to appreciate
the arts.
A trip to the theater is one of daughter
Penny’s most treasured memories. “I
wanted to see One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest—but it was 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 & 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 worked as an
usher while Charlie’s engineering talent
led him to the scene shop as a builder.
But when The Naples Players sought a
new home at the Sugden Community
Theatre, Peg & Charlie’s roles expanded.
Charlie served on the Players’ Board of
Directors and Peg became president of
The Naples Players Theatre Guild—the
theatre’s fundraising committee.
Some of their most notable work came
in 2000 at the “Shakespeare Loves Naples”
gala—a fundraiser that took nearly
a year to organize—as organizers and
participants. The interactive event had
attendees pleading with Queen Peg for
salt and good fortune from court jester
Charlie.
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Legacy Giving