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Margaret Anna Curtis, age 101, of Kalona passed away on June 23, 2022, at Pleasantview Home in Kalona, Iowa. The family will greet friends from 1:30 – 3:30 PM. A memorial service will be held Monday,July 11, 2022, at 4:00 PM at the Pleasantview Friendship Center. A family graveside service will be held Tuesday, July 12 at 11:00 AM at the cemetery in Chariton, Iowa. Memorial donations can be given to the Pleasantview Home building project. Arrangements are in the care of Peterseim Beatty Funeral Home. Margaret was the sixth of eight children born to Grover Wesley and Sarah Ann (Terrell) McCauley. She was born during a spring snowstorm on April 2, 1921 at her parents’ home in rural Lucas County, Iowa. She attended Primrose and Chinquapin country schools and graduated from Liberty Center High School in 1940. She married Walter Bernard Curtis on September 20, 1941, in Princeton, Missouri. The couple had three children: Alan Bernard Curtis (Melody) of Pinehurst, NC, Gary Dale Curtis (Becky) of Iowa City, and Susan Eileen Curtis of Kalona. Margaret had seven grandchildren (Jamie, Andrew, Brian, Matthew, Tiffany, Ryan, Larissa), 11 great-grandchildren (Lindsey, Zach, Brody, Harrison, Jack, Sam, Larissa, Beatrice, Aletta, Grete, and Thora), and 3 great-great-grandchildren (Noelle, Micah,and Susannah).
Margaret was a child during the Great Depression and a wife, and mother during WWII. Margaret and Bernard started their married life in Burlington, Iowa, using orange crates as cupboards and chairs. They also lived in a tent in Oregon, an apartment in Indianola, and a house in Des Moines, before finally “settling” in Osceola, Iowa – if living in 13 different houses can be called “settled”! During Margaret’s married life, in addition to being a wife and stay-at-home-mother, she worked as a bank teller, photographer’s touchup artist/receptionist, cook at Clarke Community High School, and waitress. After Bernard’s retirement in1984, Margaret and Bernard moved to Sundowner Court in Apache Junction, Arizona. There they enjoyed biking, walking, flea markets, eating out, and all the court activities. Bernard died in 2001, and Margaret moved to an independent living cottage at Pleasantview Home in Kalona in 2003.
At Pleasantview, Margaret was active in as many things as possible. In the community, she was active in the United Methodist Church Kalona, Red Hat Ladies and Alpha Club. She was proud of being the top seller of magic dust cloths forAlpha Club. As her health declined, she moved to residential care, and finally to the nursing wing at Pleasantview. The staff at Pleasantview provided her with attentive, loving care, as if she were their own mom or grandma.
Margaret had an artistic flair as shown by her beautiful quilts, crocheted doilies, embroidered dresser scarves, pillowcases, knitted garments, paintings, ceramics, and other special things. She loved baking/cooking and was famous for her chocolate chip cookies. She had a fine sense of fashion and good taste. She always looked stylish and well dressed even if she shopped at bargain stores.
Margaret enjoyed playing all kinds of games with friends and family – dominoes, cribbage, euchre, Rummy Cube, Skip-Bo, Uno, and Five Crowns – and she usually won!
Margaret is survived by all her children and grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, parents, and seven siblings: Gerald, Opal Ellis, Virgil, Boyd, Wilfred “Jim”, Pauline, and Howard.