Margaret E. Trueblood

Margaret Elizabeth Trueblood, known as "Margy", 99, passed away peacefully Monday, April 1, 2025, at Foulkeways Retirement Community, Gwynedd PA. She was the wife for nearly 73 years of D. Martin Trueblood. Born October 6, 1925, in Hartford, Connecticut, she was the first daughter of Robert Furnas Trueblood and Helen Craig Trueblood.

Margy was two and a half months younger than Martin, and they first met at ages 6 and 8 months in Lynn, MA in 1926 when Martin's parents, Dr. D. Elton and Pauline Trueblood, visited her parents (Elton and Furnas were both studying at Hartford Theological Seminary, Connecticut that year.) Martin and Margaret were fifth cousins once removed. They did not meet again until the summer of 1942.

Both Margaret's and Martin's parents came from Quaker families dating back centuries to the birth of Quakerism in the 1650's in England, and the family trees were constant sources of fascination and discussion.

Margy and her younger sister, Barbara, were raised in a series of Quaker communities, as their father was a Quaker minister in Friends Churches. The family settled in Richmond, Indiana in 1939. Margy attended and graduated from Earlham College during the war years, majoring in English with a minor in music. She and Martin married in June 1947. They settled in Allentown, PA, where they helped start Lehigh Valley Friends Meeting.

In 1951, the Navy recalled Martin, and he, Margaret and two-year old daughter Rachel moved to Pearl Harbor for two years, during which time son Craig was born. They loved Oahu, and their magical time in Hawaii affected the rest of their lives.

Returning to live in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania in 1954 with baby Craig, they joined Gwynedd Friends Meeting. Son Peter joined the family in 1955, and Christopher arrived in 1957, after the move to Blue Bell, PA, where they lived until 1974.

Margy loved animals and taught her children to do so as well by filling the house with pets. She taught herself and her family to identify birds and always kept bird feeders. She grew beautiful plants indoors and out. She encouraged her children in all interests, making sure they learned from an early age to be independent and to seek out new experiences. She was adept at making sure all the many different social groups she participated in flourished and cross-pollinated.

Margy related to children extremely well and loved to read them nursery rhymes, books and poetry. She always made everything exciting and fun for children with her effusive and enthusiastic nature. An extrovert, Margy loved the theater and acting onstage. She encouraged her children to put on plays as well, sewing costumes, directing, and producing. The family sang and acted out the wonderful Hawaiian songs. Costumes were a big thing with Margy; she kept up an ever-expanding collection. She loved to dance the hula, wearing her grass skirt from Honolulu with a flowered bathing suit, a lei and a coconut hat. She coached her children in dramatic, theatrical singing, leading them in acting out popular musicals.

Margy compiled many short photo/story/album books throughout her life. She wrote several actual illustrated children's books, including one called "Peter and Popsicle", about a snake, and wrote limericks and rhyming poetry, often exchanging original poetry with her father, also a poet.

She was a teacher at Gwynedd Friends Kindergarten in 1967, and started teaching third grade English and Math in 1969 at William Penn Charter School, a Quaker boys K-12 school in Germantown. She sought out the newest, most experiential, most innovative ideas and techniques in education, embracing the Open Classroom. She took her king snake, King Henry, into her classroom to live, although eventually he escaped and spent two years in the Penn Charter attic.

Margy wrote a 133 -page autobiography encompassing her life through 1976. She also became an avid, self-taught photographer, earning acclaim in photography shows.

The Lake Paupac Trueblood cottage and property in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania were part of Margy's life for roughly seventy years. She and Martin wholeheartedly embraced the reality of having Paupac as a gathering spot to enable the extended family to stay closely connected.

Margy and Martin made a really good team; she always supported his various career changes that caused them to relocate first to Cockeysville, MD, to start Broadmead, a new Quaker retirement community, and then to Williamsburg, VA. Margy adapted and embraced the new communities, exploring the Baltimore and Chesapeake area and later Colonial Williamsburg and joining the local Friends meetings.

In 1992 they took their first trip to Turkey, and Margy started writing her book, Sojourn in Paradise about her parents' experiences in Turkey at the time of Ataturk and the fall of Smyrna in 1922. It was finally published in 2019.

Margy loved all seven of her grandchildren unconditionally, and they adored her as well: Daniel, Colin and Ariana, Becky and Ben, Matthew and Kezia were the lights of her life. Whatever they became interested in, she supported.

Margy and Martin moved back to Gwynedd Valley in 1996 and started traveling to all the places they'd always wanted to go: Greece, Crete, Alaska, England, the American Southwest, Hawaii, the Galapagos, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey two more times. They also spent much more time at Paupac. Margy loved to canoe, swim, watch rhododendrons bloom in the spring, go bear spotting, watch birds, and hike. Paupac became her true home.

Margy and Martin moved into Foulkeways Retirement Community in Gwynedd, PA in 2004, where they were very active in the community.

Margy was passionate about life. She was warm, friendly, fun, ebullient, interested in everyone she met and their lives, and she really cared about people, making them feel good. She was authentic, and genuine. She drew in the person in the group who was being left out, showing interest in the person who was least likely to speak up, and made people feel included. Margy took joy in simple things. She made ordinary things turn into wondrous, exciting fun. She affirmed and supported whatever others found wonderful and helped others see the humor in absurdity. She delighted others with her silliness, levity, enthusiasm, her fantastic laugh, her wonderful spirit, her infectious giggle and her mischievous nature.

She is survived by her children, Rachel Trueblood of Boulder, CO, Craig Trueblood (Marilyn) of Media, PA, Peter Trueblood (Cindy) of Oakland, CA, and Christopher Trueblood of Newtown Square, PA; and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at Foulkeways at Gwynedd on June 21 at 2:00 pm.

This obituary may be found at http://www.huffandlakjer.com/obituary/margaret-trueblood and messages may be left there.