Margaret O'Connor Hall

Margaret O’Connor Hall(84) of Tallahassee, Florida, has died, moving on peacefully in the grace of her devout Roman Catholic faith. A Florida native, she was born to psychiatric physician Dr. James Benson O’Connor (future superintendent of Florida State Hospital, Chattahoochee) and nurse-anesthetist Ida Margaret Móricz O’Connor, the first of four children born to them.

Hall spent her early years in Chattahoochee, tromping the grounds of the Florida State Hospital and poking around the recently dammed and dry Flint River bed. As a teen she attended St. Joseph Academy in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. She next matriculated at Barry College (now Barry University) in Miami Shores, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin, summa cum laude, while serving as Student Body President and tapped by Phi Beta Kappa. Hall’s next degree was a Master of Arts Degree in Latin at Florida State University. Margo counted members of the faculty as friends and mentors, maintaining close professional ties with the FSU Classics faculty her entire alumna life.

Margaret met her husband Robert Willis Hall on a blind date to see folk act The Kingston Trio. Bob, a pennywise student at the University of Miami, had splurged on the tickets, each setting him back a

whopping $5. The investment was a sound one, leading to 58 years of marriage.

Margaret’s parents preceded her in death, as did her husband Bob. She is survived by her loving and devoted son Michael Patrick Hall and his wife Allison Carroll of San Clemente, California, son Robert Benson Hall and wife Sherry, grandsons RJ Hall and Nick Hall of Tallahassee, as well as her brothers Daniel PJ and Betty O’Connor of Ft. Lauderdale, James B. and Mary O’Connor of Mobile, Alabama, and Charles and Marcia O’Connor of Huntsville, Alabama, as well as dozens of nieces and nephews who shared so many Thanksgivings under the same roof in Tallahassee for decades. In her final years, Margaret was blessed with a number of devoted caregivers, now like family, especially Patricia Williams of Tallahassee and Angelena Poole of Crawfordville.

Margo, as she was known to all but her parents, was resolutely committed to a life of volunteerism and charitable works, and made it her goal to effect positive change in her every endeavor. These endeavors were many, and in her wake of activism she leaves a resounding and ever-expanding ripple of positivity.

These values were impressed upon her by her parents, active participants of the Greatest Generation, by her professors, her pastors, her Roman Catholic faith, but mostly by the sheer force of her very own will. Margo held firmly to this tenet passed to her by her major professor at Barry:

Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can,

To all the souls you can, in every place you can,

At all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, As long as ever.

Service to others was Margaret’s avocation, and she embodied a degree of dedication and altruism most public figures today could learn from, especially in the Formerly Great State of Florida.

Margo was the first woman ever to serve as principal at Leon High School, the county’s oldest. Prior to that, she served as Assistant Principal for Curriculum at Lincoln High for several years and as Latin teacher for for a combined total of nearly 50 years at Lincoln, Godby, and Leon High Schools. At Leon High, the classroom she last taught from bears a plaque with her name on it, in testament to the academic juggernaut this superlative educator built and that dominated awards shows at regional and state Latin Fora* for more than a decade.

Hall made Latin about more than just grammar and vocabulary, bringing ancient culture to life for high school kids, inspiring them to greatness at the state and national levels, and inspiring more than a few of them to become teachers themselves.

Hall trained and mentored innumerable teachers throughout her career, and was a prime mover for the success of the Florida Junior Classical League during her tenure and deeply committed to her fellow classics educators in the American Classical League. When Margo retired from public school education she was instrumental in bringing to fruition Tallahassee’s long-hoped-for Catholic high school, St. John Paul II Catholic High School, and took on the mantle of assistant principal there until she retired again in 2018.

As an educator, Hall was often recognized by her peers for her excellence, and in 1985 was named Teacher of the Year for Leon High School, then for North Florida. Her fellow Floridian educators showed their confidence in her abilities when they tapped her year after year to help create standards used in classrooms around the state by and for the Southern Association for Colleges and Schools (SACS).

Hall was honored with election to the presidency of the Tallahassee Junior League in 1985, somehow finding time to do this in her time outside school. In this role she trained the next generation of leaders and was a driving force behind projects like the Whale of a Sale and the Bargain Box.

She and husband Bob were lifetime patrons of local arts, the Tallahassee Symphony, public television, local eateries, and every seafood spot from Bradfordville to Apalachicola.

Margo and Bob Hall’s Waverly Hills home, which they built in 1978, became a hub for countless meetings for Latin Club, Anchor Club, Interact Club, Choral Parents Association, Junior League, neighborhood parties, and any other group who needed a willing host, which was Margo, always.

When not full of people, their home gave Margo ample opportunities to read junky fiction novels, which she did ravenously. She loved her cats and dogs, so many through the years, and could often be found curled with one or more of them by the fireplace or in a sunny corner with a book. Outside, she and Bob loved to travel, especially by rail or sea, and visiting the Great Smoky Mountains of North Georgia and Western North Carolina, and the Panhandle’s unspoiled beaches on the Gulf of Mexico.

It was widely known that Margo could at any time be relied on to help anyone in need - friend or not – to provide guidance, counsel, and mentorship without hesitation or expectation of repayment. She mentored countless educators and administrators during her career in public schools and anyone who at any time ever just needed a comforting word and a steady presence.

Despite being 5’3” and 98 pounds most of her adult life, this little lady made huge and lasting contributions wherever she found herself, fully embodying a “bloom where you’re planted” ideal. Margo devoted her entire five-decade career to educating the youth of Leon County, Florida, and proudly serving the most needy of her fellow Tallahasseans through frequent charitable contributions as well through her role as Eucharistic Minister at St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral.

The light of her Good Works and life affirming acts will keep shining and show us what it means to be a good person, friend, teacher, parent, and citizen, and the cumulative, cascading benefits of her life so well-lived, so well-loved.

An early group of Latin students at Godby HS in the 1970s gifted Margo with a step stool inscribed with the Latin “Stas Alta,” or “You stand tall.” Indeed you did, Mama, and do. You gave it your all. Rest easy now. We’ll miss and love you always.

*(Forum, -i, n.; pl. Fora)