Born in May 21, 1921 in Gloucestershire, England, in 1953 she married Joe E.
Appiah, who later became a Ghanaian government official and diplomat. Famed Africanist Kwame Anthony Appiah of Princeton University is among their four children. A longtime resident of Kumasi, Peggy Appiah devoted her lifetime to collecting Asante proverbs and stories and published many books including "Tales of an Ashanti Father" and "Ananse the Spider: Tales from an Ashanti Village".