Margaret Elise Spurgat

Margaret Elise Spurgat died on June 6, 2016 in Alexandria, Virginia, at the age of 99. She was born Margaret Elise Knoblauch on March 26, 1917 in Woodburn, Indiana, outside Fort Wayne, the seventh of nine children of Ernest Knoblauch and Lillie Goetz Knoblauch. She graduated from Woodburn High School in 1935 with honors and was married in 1937 to Otto R. Spurgat, a teacher at the Lutheran School who later became an ordained minister. Their three children Robert, Sharon, and Carol, were born in Indiana.

In 1954, the family moved to Tuckahoe, New York, where Otto was the librarian and a church musician at Concordia College in neighboring Bronxville. Otto earned his divinity degree and became a full-time pastor in 1964 in Scotia, New York, where they lived until Otto ‘retired’ in 1974. Marge was a full-time pastor’s wife in Scotia.

In 1975, Margaret and Otto became members of the Christian Service Corps, and they spent two years organizing the theological library at Makumira Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tanzania. While in Africa, Marge climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and had many other adventures. When they returned to the States in 1978, they accepted a call to a small Lutheran congregation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where Otto continued as pastor until he retired again in 1986. They remained active in the music and mission programs of the growing church; Marge served in both the chancel and bell choirs and performed as a soloist on the hammered dulcimer.

From 2000 to 2002, Margaret was President of the Rehoboth Beach Chapter of the National Federation of Woman's’ Clubs and was honored as a 25-year member of the Rehoboth Club. Predeceased by her husband Otto in 2003, she lived alone in their Delaware home for almost a decade before moving closer to her daughter in Alexandria. She is survived by her three married children: Robert (Susan) of St. Joseph, Missouri, Sharon (Clyde) Calhoun of Stillwater, Minnesota, and Carol (Howard) Borgstrom of Alexandria, Virginia, plus seven grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. Her eight brothers and sisters predeceased her, but she is “Aunt Margaret” to several dozen nieces and nephews. She loved playing bridge and scrabble, studying the Bible, writing poetry, and listening to music, and she was ministered to by Presbyterian, Baptist, and Episcopal clergy in Virginia..

Margaret’s faith was written into her will, “Realizing the uncertainty of this life, I place full confidence and trust in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who promised,’I am the resurrection and the life; he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall she live; and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.’” (John 11:25-26)

A memorial service is scheduled for June 23, 2016 at 11:00am at Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Arrangements under the direction of Demaine Funeral Home, Alexandria, VA.