When Margaret Wright was born in Royal, Illinois, on Jan. 15, 1925 — the fourth of five children — no one could have guessed how much beauty she would bring to the world.
Margaret and her siblings grew up in a hard-working family of farmers, just outside of Ogden. All five Wright children completed and graduated from high school, something not all rural children were able to do at that time.
With one brother who became a farmer himself and another who worked at the University of Illinois, Margaret and her sisters, Nora and Kay, all attended beauty school and became hairdressers — something Margaret would continue doing from home up until she was diagnosed with dementia last year.
“My mom still thinks she knows how to do hair better than anybody else,” said Margaret’s daughter, Susan Pacot, laughing.
When WWII ended, Margaret met the man who would become her husband when her brother-in-law introduced her to his friend Speed. Margaret Wright and Francis ‘Speed’ Jameson wed in 1948 and started their family not long after.
“We grew up in a very loving home,” Susan said of she and her sister Patricia Chambliss. They share fond memories of family vacations and lots of time with their large, extended family.
In her free time, Margaret enjoyed playing golf and card games like Euchre and Bridge. But her favorite pass-time was taking care of her home, both inside and out. She would spend hours baking, planting flowers, and making candy, especially for Christmas, her daughter said.
“That’s what she enjoyed most was her family and her home and taking care of that. She mowed the grass until we took the mower away,” Susan said.
Margaret was also very active at her church throughout the years, Catlin United Methodist, teaching Sunday school and summer Bible school. She enjoyed watching her four grand-children and later her 10 great grand-children.
Though Speed passed in 1995, their frugal lifestyle ensured that Margaret never had to worry about finances or change her lifestyle. Still, she continued working in her in-home beauty salon up until she couldn’t anymore.
“Until she went into Holly Brook, she still was home working, and that’s the thing she misses most, working from home and caring for her home,” Susan said.
Last year, Susan and their family began to notice that Margaret was forgetting to turn off the stove or leaving the water running, and sometimes she would forget who Susan was.
That’s when she was diagnosed with dementia and the family made the decision to place her in the Villas of Holly Brook — an assisted living facility in Danville that specializes in caring for residents with dementia.
Margaret’s sister Nora, 98, also lives at Holly Brook, so the two spend lots of time together, and Susan and her sister, their children and grandchildren visit nearly every day. She also enjoys lunch and dinner with her life-long friend Betty Montgomery.
“She’s lived an awesome long life,” Susan said of Margaret.
Holly Brook will host a birthday party for Margaret at noon Wednesday, while Susan and family plan to have their own party for her later that night with one very special treat.
“We’re going to have Monical’s pizza. She likes that. And we’re gonna have a birthday cake and just celebrate her, basically,” Susan said.