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Note: BIOGRAPHY: Nickname: Margie or Marge BIOGRAPHY: A true lady and her daughters' best friend. Deeply loved by her husband, and respected by all. Her grandchildren thought she walked on water!
BIOGRAPHY: Margie grew up in Chicago, and had lots of memories of her childhood. One of her favorites occurred during the Prohibition Era. Her mother and father were not drinkers by any means, but they did enjoy a beer with their lunch each day, so Prohibition was hard on them. Grandpa decided to do a little home brewing and had a good batch brewing in the upstairs bathtub. It was just about ready to bottle, and Grandpa was pretty pleased with himself, but unfortunately the pastor of their church decided to make a call. The smell of the beer was strong, so in desperation, Grandpa pulled the plug and drained the beer down the pipes! Too late! The pastor's nose wrinkled, and he gave Grandpa and Grandma such a disapproving look! Grandpa often wished later that he had never pulled that plug, because it didn't do any good anyway!
BIOGRAPHY: Another time the family brewed their own non-alcoholic root beer. After it was bottled, it was stored in the basement of the house. The basement was only partially underground, and one day it was very, very hot outside. Suddenly they heard a strange sound in the basement. When they went to check it out, they found root beer bottles exploding all over the place. What a mess!
BIOGRAPHY: Margie had a pet sheep as a child. Its name was "Porkchop" and Mom loved it dearly. She was so pleased that her parents allowed her to have such a big pet. Imagine her grief when her father butchered Porkchop and she and her sibs were expected to EAT him for dinner! There was a lot of crying that day!
BIOGRAPHY: She remembered trips to Canada to visit her Marsden cousins. Most memorable were the many stops to repair flat tires! The roads in those days were gravel or just plain dirt, and the tires were thin balloon tires. They didn't last long, and Mom remembered carrying several spares to last the trip. She also loved going to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in the summer. The family tent-camped at Van Dyke's Campground and would spend a couple of weeks enjoying the lakeside life. The kids were able to take friends with them, which made for quite a crowd, but lots of fun.
BIOGRAPHY: She attended Schurz High School, and enjoyed being in the choir, even though her deep voice meant she had to sing with the boys! She had a wonderful, well-modulated voice, and I used to think all the other women we knew sounded like little girls in comparison to her.
BIOGRAPHY: Margie turned into a very lovely young woman. She had a stunning figure and a wonderful sense of style. It is no wonder that she caught Joe's eye! Modest as she was, though, she was surprised that he would even pay her any attention. She told me that she thought he was handsome enough to be a movie star, and he could marry any girl he wanted to! She was always proud to be his wife, and bragged on him to us girls all the time.
BIOGRAPHY: Margie was very self-conscious about her "horse teeth", evidence of her British heritage. Her two front teeth were rather large, and there was a small gap between them. She hated those teeth, and when the day came that the dentist recommended that she get full dentures, she was thrilled. The dentist designed a beautiful set of "movies tar" teeth for her, and she came home so pleased with her new look. Unfortunately, I was still young and not very tactful. "Mom", I whined, "you don't look like YOU anymore!" What I meant, and what Dad and Cathie agreed with me about, was that with her old teeth Mom had the most marvelous smile you could ever hope to see. Her whole face lit up, and that BIG smile made you happy just to see it. So we all made little remarks about how pretty Mom looked, but it sure would take us a while to get used to that new smile. Fortunately for us, those dentures just never fit Mom comfortably, so finally she arranged to have a new set made. Imagine our surprise and delight when she came in the house and smiled her old gap-toothed smile at us! She had ordered a new set of dentures made from the cast of her original teeth. Bless her heart, she gave up her life-long dream of perfect teeth just to please us. But then, that's the kind of lady she was.
BIOGRAPHY: Her big milestone, or hurdle, was when she had breast cancer in her forties. God is good, and "it just so happened" that the doctor who treated her had just come from Bethesda Naval Hospital where he had developed a new type of surgery which allowed more muscle to be retained. He asked Mom if she was willing to be an experimental patient, and told her that if the surgery were successful, she would have a 50% better chance of retaining use of her arm. How could Margie say "no"? The surgery was successful, and after much hard work, Margie regained full use of her right arm, although being a woman of her times, she always felt that she wasn't quite "complete" after that. Although she fully recovered from the breast cancer and lived another fifteen years after her surgery, she later developed lung cancer (she was a heavy smoker), and chose to forego therapy. She died in her own bed at home on Capistrano Drive in Santa Clara, CA.
BIOGRAPHY: She was always a God-fearing woman, but did not meet the Lord personally until she was in her fifties. From then on, she delighted in studying the Word, and loved the Lord with all her heart.
BIOGRAPHY: Margie's hobbies were reading (especially mystery stories) and gardening. She could make anything grow! Once her grandchildren found some flowerpots with a little dry dirt in them along the curb. They brought them to Grandma, who moistened the soil a little to prepare them for planting something later. A few days later, lovely little plants began popping up! The grandchildren were convinced that Grandma knew some sort of magic!
BIOGRAPHY: She was a doting Grandma, and spent much time with her grandkids. She made it a point to spend a special day with each of them each month. She would play games with the child, take him or her on special outings, or just sit and talk. The grandkids loved her dearly and missed her sorely after her death. It has always been one of my deepest regrets that my own children missed out on knowing Grandma.
BIOGRAPHY: She was a gutsy lady, too. Having grown up in Chicago where bugs were not especially prevalent, at least in her experience, it was a real challenge for her to adapt to the tropic environments of Guam, Hawaii, and Texas as a Navy wife, but she did it. Of course, there were a few false starts. For example, once in Guam she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye. When she realized it was a lizard, she jumped on the kitchen table and started shrieking for Joe to kill it. Joe grabbed the broom and started whacking. From outside, it sounded like:
BIOGRAPHY: Female voice: "Shriek!!!" male voice: "Shut up, Margie!" sound effect: WHACK!
BIOGRAPHY: The next day, no one at work would even speak to Joe. When he finally got someone to tell him what was wrong, it turned out that one of them had heard the fracas the evening before and thought Joe was beating Margie!
BIOGRAPHY: On another occasion, when they first arrived at their new duty station in Texas, someone (teasingly) told Margie and Joe that if they were ever stung by a scorpion to be sure to get medical attention FAST because they would have only a half hour to live. They tucked this "information" away in their minds, and sure enough, one night when Margie climbed into bed, she felt a sting. She naturally shrieked and jumped out of bed. A sleepy Joe groggily examined the bedclothes. He found the scorpion, and having been told that scorpions travel in pairs, he continued looking until he found and killed the second one. Meanwhile Margie was going into hysterics thinking that she was about to die. Their telephone had not been installed yet, so they quickly ran to the neighbors' house to use their phone. Voices shaking, they explained what had happened and that Margie had only a half hour to live if they didn't get help quickly. The neighbor patiently asked how long it had been since Margie had been stung. "Oh, about half an hour ago!" And of course she was feeling just fine!
BIOGRAPHY: But by the second time the family moved to Texas, Margie had learned the value of some bugs. She had learned that spiders eat many times their weight in bugs each day, and that they could be handy to have around in places where mosquitoes and ants thrive. At their home in Corpus Christi, she squashed them all except for two spiders that lived on top of the living room curtains. They lived happily up there, keeping the house mosquito- and fly-free. When Margie's brother Albert and his wife Irene came for a visit, Irene thought to do a favor by doing some dusting while Margie and the others were out. When Margie got home, Irene was so proud of having "saved" Margie from harm by killing those two nasty spiders in the living room! We all had a good laugh over that one!
BIOGRAPHY: Margie's favorite pet was her blue parakeet, Prettybird. Prettybird was originally a birthday present for her daughter, Cathie. Margie was terrified of the bird and made Cathie promise to keep it in her room with the door shut. Of course no kid is perfect, and one day when Cathie was called to dinner, she left the bedroom door open and the bird out of his cage (he was finger-trained). We were all in the kitchen doing the evening dishes when we heard a strange sound. Suddenly Prettybird came swooping into the kitchen, heading directly for Mom! She frantically ducked, and smacked her mouth against the stove, breaking one of those big front teeth in half. From then on we called him "the 53-dollar bird" because it cost Mom $53 to get that tooth fixed. In those days, that was a LOT of money. That did it :Mom decided that "no little four-ounce bird was going to terrorize her." She instructed Cathie to bring the bird's cage out into the living room, and many times a day Mom would force herself to go to the cage and talk to the bird. Finally she got up the courage to stick her finger in the cage, and the bird casually stepped onto it! She almost died of fright, but then realized that it didn't hurt and he wasn't going to kill her! Soon she was able to bring him out of the cage and let him sit on her shoulder. Needless to say, it wasn't long before Prettybird began to feel that he was MARGIE's bird, and she began to feel that he was HER pet! He even learned to say"Prettybird" from listening to her saying his name all the time. They became the best of friends, and many are the stories of their misadventures together! (Like the time she sat on him when she didn't notice that he won the race to the rocking chair!)
BIOGRAPHY: Margie was a gifted seamstress, and we girls were always the best-dressed kids in town thanks to her skills. I used to anxiously await the day I would grow into the outfits made for my sister and saved for me after she outgrew them. And what fun it was to watch my own dresses magically appear under Mom's sewing machine needle! She always let us choose our own patterns and fabrics, and we felt very special. Often Dad would set up the camera and take pictures of us in our new finery, and we felt like princesses!
BIOGRAPHY: During the War years, Margie was a "Rosie the Riveter", working in an arms factory. She often had to handle things on her own when Joe was away on duty with the Navy. She always presented an image of quiet authority and self confidence. It wasn't until we were much older and had to experience such times on our own that we girls realized how insecure Mom often felt when Dad was gone. She never let us feel any insecurity.
BIOGRAPHY: Margie was a trained bookkeeper, and held a several positions as such. She was once the secretary for a box-making company in Mundelein, Illinois, and she was the receptionist/secretary for a dentist in Sunnyvale, CA. In her later years she worked part time for an accounting firm in San Jose. One of their clients was a car dealership. She noticed that even though they never sold many cars, they sure were depositing a lot of money. Noticing that everyone in the auto dealership had an Italian name, she began to put two and two together. Then the owner of the car dealership began coming into the office to see Marge's boss. He took a real shine to Margie and kept asking her out for dates. She was terrified! "What am I going to do?!" she wailed to Joe; "He might shoot me or something if I don't go out with him!" Of course she was just kidding, but she really was a little nervous around that fellow! "That fellow" pursued her for years, but he never had a chance, despite his "connections"!
BIOGRAPHY: Margie was very strong in her opinions, but never pushy. Though she was never less than polite, she never let others push her around, either. As an example, several times when quests stayed on visiting until late into the evening, Margie would drop little hints about having to go to work in the morning. If several attempts did not do the trick, she would excuse herself for a few minutes, then reappear in her bathrobe and begin curling her hair! "Hope you don't mind", she'd say, "but I need to get ready for bed." Once in a while even this tactic would not work! At least twice when truly persistent guests still remained, she simply said, "Well, good night. I've had a wonderful time, and sure hope I see you again. Just make yourselves at home, and be sure to turn the lights out when you leave! Come see us again!" And off to bed she went!
BIOGRAPHY: Mostly she was the most wonderful mother any daughter could hope for. She was patient beyond belief, loving without being cloying, always had a ready ear and a ready shoulder, and gladly set her own plans and activities aside in order to accommodate the plans and activities of her girls. She was a generous person, and got carried away at Christmas time. Her home was beautifully decorated for every holiday, and she made a fuss over every birthday. She made it clear that she respected herself and her husband and her daughters, and expected others to do the same. She loved the Lord and set the stage so that her daughters could come to know Him. Hers was a wonderful legacy.
BIOGRAPHY: I miss my best friend.
BIOGRAPHY: Written by Susan Egan Wyatt, Margie's youngest daughter Alpharetta, GA Sept 19. 1997 BIOGRAPHY: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
BIOGRAPHY: [Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 1 A-L, Ed. 5, Social SecurityDeath Index: U.S., Date of Import: Jun 26, 1999, Internal Ref.#1.111.5.69011.83]
BIOGRAPHY: Individual: Egan, Margaret Social Security #: 357-03-2895 SS# issued in: Illinois
BIOGRAPHY: Birth date: Apr 15, 1921 Death date: Apr 1981
BIOGRAPHY: ZIP Code of address where death benefit payment was sent: 95051 Primary location associated with this ZIP Code:
BIOGRAPHY: Santa Clara, California
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