Margaret G. Baudhuin died peacefully March 31, 2026. At the time of her death, she was resting comfortably, getting the very best care from members of the inpatient hospice care team at SSM St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Since the sudden onset of her catastrophic illness on March 8, she had the benefit of the very best care one could want. Her husband, Rob, her son, John, and her beloved niece, Deanna, were by her side every day during her entire stay and are extremely grateful for the loving care provided by so many SSM staff members, including the palliative care team, the hospice care team, social workers, hospitalists, surgeons, neurologists, nurse practitioners, and especially the RNs, CNAS, and housekeepers who saw to her hourly needs in the ER, the ICU, and eventually during her stay under the care of the inpatient hospice care team at St. Mary’s.

Margaret was born August 24, 1950, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to her parents, Kenneth E. Gilman and Beatrice L. Gilman (Paulson). She spent her first few years in Gilmanton, Wisconsin, a small town a bit south of Eau Claire. In 1954, the family moved to Sparta, Wisconsin, where Margaret had a wonderful childhood, making lifelong friends and eventually graduating from Sparta High School in 1968. She left Sparta to attend UW- LaCrosse. She graduated in 1972 with a BS in biology and health. She married her husband, Rob Baudhuin in 1973. They had been constant companions since they met in high school and studied together at UW-L. After working as director of a reproductive health care center for women for a few years, Margaret and Rob moved to Madison, Wisconsin, so that Margaret could study for a master’s degree in the school of library science at the University of Wisconsin. After earning her degree, Margaret began a career within the department of psychiatry at University Hospital as a medical information specialist. While there, she built a large database dedicated to literature about lithium as a treatment for bipolar disorder. Eventually, this database would include a few hundred thousand well-curated and cataloged references. Ms. Baudhuin and her assistants read and cross-referenced all of these books, book chapters, articles, manuscripts, monographs, and other digital information, and helped clients around the world find the information they needed to inform their work as mental health care providers. They also served others who worked with bipolar patients, including family members and others in need. Together, Ms. Baudhuin and her assistants also helped to write and edit several guides for family members and other people associated with bipolar patients. These guides were widely distributed here and abroad. After more than ten years there, she left to do the same work in a private enterprise, Healthcare Technology Systems, founded by the psychiatrists she had worked with at the UW. Margaret’s 35-year career was a great one, distinguished by her enormous capacity for hard work, making her, in her time, perhaps the most well-read person in her field. She retired in 2013. Since retirement, Margaret focused on her work with the Nakoma neighborhood association, and later, as a representative for American Girl, where she truly enjoyed helping customers wend their way through purchasing concerns and various complications. She was expert at untangling the concerns of her clients and resolving their problems. She did so with confidence and a superb, instantly calming, phone presence.

Throughout her life, Margaret was also intimately involved in the lives of her many friends and acquaintances. She was genuinely interested in their lives and lived to help and not hinder. She often spent an hour or more listening to friends who used her as a sounding board, sharing the events of their personal lives, knowing that she could be trusted to listen and offer her sincere thoughts on problems large and small.

In her married life, Margaret was the glue that held everything together. She was the CFO of the household and the one who orchestrated any entertaining that occurred there. She had a knack for anticipating even the smallest needs of her guests, right down to guests’ individual tastes. She was also the chief travel agent, selecting the countries and cities they would visit and setting the itinerary down to the hour. Together, she and Rob enjoyed several lengthy stays in the UK, France, Spain, and Italy. She preferred to spend a month or more in places that were close to great public transportation so that they could use their chosen city as a sort of hometown from which to explore many other locations

easily accessible by train. Her favorite city invariably was the last place she visited, but she had a special fondness for London, Paris, Nimes, Girona, Rome, Madrid, and especially Barcelona and Florence, where she and Rob had spent weeks upon weeks over the last

decade or so. She often said she would gladly pick up stakes and live in either of those cities. Indeed, traveling was something Margaret enjoyed almost as much as anything. She often said that she thought the travel gods were with her and Rob as they visited all of the major cities in the U.S. and many abroad in Canada and Europe. In addition, they managed no less than 25 spring break trips to the glorious Emerald Coast of the Florida panhandle, where they enjoyed beachfront life, golf, building enormous sandcastles, and visiting Rob’s parents in the Ft. Walton Beach area.

Margaret was preceded in death by her parents, Ken and Beatrice Gilman, all of her aunts and uncles on both sides, two of her brothers, Mike Gilman of Sandy, OR., and John Gilman of Bella Vista, AR., parents-in-law, E.J. and Viola R. Baudhuin of Ft. Walton Beach, Fl., Rob’s brothers, Neil R. Baudhuin, of West Bloomfield Hills, MI., and E. Scott Baudhuin, of Sterling, VA.

She is survived by her husband of almost 53 years, Robert C. Baudhuin of Madison WI., her beloved son John E. G. Baudhuin, who will soon return to live in Madison, WI., her brother, Dan Gilman (Patricia), of Onalaska, WI., her brother-in-law, John S. Baudhuin (Ruth Mary) of Palm Beach Gardens, FL., her sister-in-law, Ruth Baudhuin (Alan Goodman) of Detroit, MI., and her sister-in-law, Linda Gilman of BellaVista, AR. She is also survived by her numerous nieces and nephews on both sides, as well as countless cousins and close friends from coast to coast, who regularly sought her calm wisdom regarding the nuances of their daily lives. And, finally she leaves behind those who lived nearby. She was a long time fixture in her beloved Nakoma neighborhood, and could be seen almost daily by neighbors as she and a Rob took long walks, stopping often along the way to visit with their many acquaintances and dear friends.

The family wishes to express deep gratitude for the recent outpouring of love and support they have received in recent days. These painfully real times would have been unbearable without all of you.

Cress Funeral& Cremation Service

3610 Speedway Rd   Madison

608-238-3434