Beyond My Wildest

Peggy Larsen grew up in the parched town of Barstow, California, the daughter of poor-as-dirt Oklahoma farmers. A runaway hippie at age 13, she was pregnant, married and suffered domestic abuse by age 17. With a baby to feed and no college degree, she took a filing job at the local insurance agency.

She never could have guessed that she'd survive the tragedies to come, or that she'd go on to become senior vice president for a billion-dollar company and receive the prestigious Athena Award, given to just one woman each year.