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Born Winona Sammon in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, she became the latest addition to the Ziegfeld Follies in 1923 at age 13, though she claimed to be 17. She prepared for six weeks and began her stage work, becoming a stage dancer for two seasons. She desired to do serious dramatic stage work and within a three year period (1926-1929) she appeared in 15 shows, none of which had an extended run.

During this period, she met and married fellow actor Alan Davis. While on Broadway in 1931, Peggy was spotted by B. P. Schulberg, production head of Paramount Pictures, and was offered a contract. When Peggy arrived in Hollywood, she was hailed as the next It girl, replacing the former, Clara Bow. During the shooting of The Secret Call, Clara Bow suffered a nervous breakdown, and Peggy was hired to replace her only two days after arriving in Hollywood.

She would sometimes work 16 hour days (from 10AM to 4AM the next day) while shooting the film, and when shooting wrapped would rush to begin another film. She would occasionally work on two separate films in one day. Through films and publicity, Peggy became known as a fashion plate, wearing styles three months before they became popular. In 1932, she signed a new contract at Fox Studios and became known as difficult and temperamental on the set and was rumored to have a drinking problem. In 1934, Peggy returned to New York City to do the Broadway show Page Miss Glory, playing the girlfriend of then unknown Jimmy Stewart.

In 1935, she continued on Broadway with The Light Behind the Shadow, but was soon replaced, with a press release claiming a tooth infection, though rumors claimed it was her drinking. In [[1936], she returned to Hollywood with Youth On Parole. She found it harder to conceal her drinking.

In 1940, Peggy married cameraman/actor Albert G. Roberts. Fewer movie roles were offered, while Peggy`s drinking worsened.

On May 11, 1941, Albert Roberts and a fellow studio worker returned from a fishing trip to find Peggy dead. She was slumped over the kitchen table, a cigarette in her mouth and an empty glass in her hand. She had been dead for approximately 12 hours, aged 31.

An autopsy revealed that she had died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment and a run-down condition. She is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery with a tombstone reading "That Red Headed Girl, Peggy Shannon."

Three weeks after Peggy`s death, her husband committed suicide. He shot himself with a .22 rifle in the same chair that Peggy died. His suicide note read, "I am very much in love with my wife, Peggy Shannon. In this spot she died, so in reverence to her, you will find me in the same spot." Albert Roberts is buried in Wee Kirk Churchyard, Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California, shortly after.