SHARON — John Michael Degener, 77, known as Michael, died March 20, 2011, while vacationing on the Caribbean island of Mustique in the West Indies. He suffered a fatal cardiac arrest while snorkeling off a reef on the Cotton House beach. Born in New York City on July 11, 1933, Mr. Degener was the son of the late Nouche Lucien-Robert and George Ludwig Degener Jr. Mr. George Degener and his late wife, Mary Renwick Degener, Michael’s stepmother, had a longtime country residence in Millerton, from 1940 to 1981. He grew up on the Upper East Side of New York, attended Trinity School, boarded at Riverdale School for Boys, and graduated from The Millbrook School. He was a 1956 graduate of Williams College, and received an MBA from New York University in 1972. In 1988, Mr. Degener moved to Sharon with his wife, Helen (MacDonald) Degener, who survives him. Together they restored an old farmhouse dating from 1745. He loved wildlife, which he fed daily outside his house in winter, and the many Siamese cats who shared his home, including its present inhabitants, Robert and Freddy.His career utilized his talent for creating special computer programs for large systems when the field was in its early years. He did this as assistant to the president of Refined Syrups and Sugars, a division of CPC International. Later he worked for other firms before starting his own consulting firm. One of his more public achievements was designing the computerized public information boards and score boards used at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.At the Sharon Country Club, where he was a longtime member, he is remembered as a fine tennis player and indefatigable golfer, always elegantly dressed and working on improving his game. He twice won the club’s Governor’s Cup for golf. His last victory came in 2010, in a memorable 22 –hole match with his frequent playing partner, Margaret Douglas-Hamilton.He collected World War II model aircraft and lavished care upon his two vintage Mercedes cars, named Blanche and Sapphire. Mr. Degener through his mother’s French family lived in Paris and the south of France off and on until World War II began in France. He spoke French fluently, learning it as his first language, and loved reading the wonderful French library left to him by his grandmother. He traveled extensively in France throughout his life. In addition to his wife, Helen, he is survived by two children from his first marriage to Marie-Laure (Murat) Degener, his daughter, Carol Marie-Laure Degener of New York City and his son, John Michael Degener Jr., and his wife, Henriette Kets-de-Vries, of Southhampton, Mass.; one granddaughter, Belen Degener also of Southampton; and by a stepsister, Mary Joan Hall and a stepbrother, Monroe Bostwick Hall Jr., both of Maine. He was predeceased by an older half-brother, George L. Degener III. A private interment service is planned for the immediate family. A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 28, at 11 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church in Sharon, followed by a reception at the Sharon Country Club. Memorial contributions may be made to the Sharon Audubon Society. Arrangements are under the care of the Kenny Funeral Home in Sharon.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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