Exuberant.  Vivacious.  Sparkling.  Words that best describe Peggy Fields Richardson!  If you’ve never met a 300-lb. woman who lights up the room, then meeting Peggy! will be a treat for you. 

She has the soothing accent of a true Southern lady and a glint of mischief in her luminous brown eyes.   Peggy! grew up in a small town just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, and is no stranger to hard work.  “When I say I grew up hoeing,” she quips, “I mean working in the garden!”

Born to honest, hard-working parents, she was instilled with a rare sense of community, and has performed volunteer work in suicide intervention, disaster relief, teaching English as a learned language and conducting theater workshops for elementary school children. 

            And don’t let Peggy’s irreverent sense of humor and ever-present smile fool you—behind the happy façade is a woman of strength and integrity.  Having a child born with serious medical issues might have devastated most, but not Peggy!  “I had to teach my daughter to adapt to the world because it would not adapt to her,” she reflects, “so I fought for her.  I fought for the best education, the best medical care, to change Social Security for children.  For my child, I fought the schools, the doctors, the hospitals, the government, my employers, financial difficulties... sometimes I fought to maintain my sanity—but at 30 years old, she walks—something she was not supposed to do.”

             Get to know her, and you’ll learn that Peggy! handles hardships as new opportunities.  “When I go through something really difficult—like when my fiancée died 43 days before our wedding—I ask myself ‘What does God want me to learn from this?’ because I don’t want to miss the lesson!”  It’s this kind of attitude that draws people to her and the stories she tells in books she has written (an e-book, 30 Days to More Joy in Your Life and a cookbook, Lincoln Entrees)

            About acting, she says, “I LOVE acting.  It used to be a dream for me, but in my very complicated life, the dream faded.  Until my recent role for America’s Most Wanted, I had forgotten how much I loved it.  Now I have ‘the bug’ again—and I’m ready for new adventures!”