Margaret Ingrid Pearson

Margaret Ingrid Pearson, previously of Des Plaines, Illinois, lately residing in Madison, Wisconsin, passed away on Thursday, September 30, 2010 at Hospice Care in Fitchburg, WI. She was born in Jonkoping, Sweden on March 5, 1918 and immigrated to the United States with her older sister, Elizabeth, and three brothers, Bob, Gus, and Paul to be reunited in Chicago with her parents, Agda and Hermann Carlsson, who had immigrated a few years earlier. In Chicago she went to school through the eighth grade and then worked as a nanny before taking a job at the YMCA cafeteria. There she met her future husband, David Bertil Pearson, of Bollebygd, Sweden, who was a cook in the YMCA kitchen. After a courtship which included wonderful nights of dancing at the Aragon Ballroom they were married on September 7, 1941 at Ebenenzer Church on Foster Avenue in Chicago and resided in an apartment on Malden Street just south of Wilson. After the birth of their third child they moved to Des Plaines, Illinois. From a $5 blueprint and with the help of David's Swedish lodge brothers, they built a modest home by hand on Lyons and Delphia Streets across from a truck farm which eventually became Golf Mill Shopping Mall. There they raised five daughters.

Margaret is preceded in death by her beloved husband, David, (1909-1996) and her older sister, Elizabeth, and three brothers, Paul, Bob, and Gus. She is survived by her daughters: Diane Lynn Pearson (married to William Kaplan, daughter Erica Kaplan), Darline Ingrid Pearson (formerly married to Edwin Jablonowski, daughter Laura Ann Jablonowski), Marline Erina Pearson (married to Robert Kennedy, daughters Emory and Lillian Kennedy Pearson), Betty Lou Eischen (married to Richard Eischen, sons Casey and Garrett Eischen), and Debra Ann Pearson (married to Harrison Hitchner, daughter Dakota Hitchner).

 

 

Margaret's work and personal life were all about helping others. Despite raising a family of five strong-willed girls at a time when day care and other kinds of assistance for working parents were all but non-existent, she worked tirelessly in a variety of jobs to help support her family and never once revealed an ounce of fatigue or despair. She held a variety of jobs, at Crane Packing Company and Bob and Lois's Hamburger Joint and Liquor Store before settling into her work of many years as a nurse's aide in two local nursing homes, where she continued to volunteer until she was 78. The nursing home residents truly cherished her for her many kind acts that went above and beyond her work assignments. Margaret would massage a shoulder, rub feet, trim nails and brighten her residents' day with her optimism, sweet smile, and humor. In fact, one of the residents put her into his modest will in acknowledgment of her tireless kindness and tenderness towards him.

 

 

She loved dancing, and would frequently be the last one on the dance floor, having danced through all the men, then the women. She also loved singing, and Lawrence Welk (often saying what a mistake she had made not getting her five daughters together in a singing group like the Lennon Sisters). In her older years, her indomitable spirit and kindness towards others continued to shine through. Her grandchildren would often have fun with ""Mor Mor"" as she worried about them getting cold if they went barefoot in the summer or without a sweater. Finally, Margaret's entire family is indebted to the caring staff of St Mary's Adult Day Health Center and HospiceCare for the tenderness and loving care they showed Margaret over the past several years and in her final months.

A funeral service will be held at 2:00 pm on Saturday, October 16 at Messiah Lutheran Church in Park Ridge, IL. Memorial donations may be made to St. Mary's Foundation, 707 S. Mills St., Madison WI 53715 in Margaret's name for the St. Mary's Adult Day Health Center.