Margaret Louise Oringderff

Margaret Louise Oringderff, aged 86, died peacefully on December 12, 2016 after a brief struggle with cancer. Margaret was born on October 29, 1930, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She had an idyllic childhood growing up in Ft. Scott, Kansas as an only child to loving and doting parents, Ralph and Eva Blackburn. She graduated from Fort Scott High School & went on to pursue her nursing degree in Springfield, MO.

Margaret’s main interests included sketching and painting, horses, and nursing. She was a gifted artist, sketching and painting as a young child and continuing this pursuit throughout her life, winning awards in local art contests in her later years. She was an avid horse enthusiast & owned several horses. She attended Drury College in Springfield, MO where she earned her nursing degree.

In 1957, Margaret married Robert E. Bates. She was mother to their three children Gary Andrew Bates, Gene Philip Bates, and Cherilyn Anne Wood, all three of whom she raised almost entirely by herself. In 1974 she married Melvin Leo Oringderff and they were married until his death in 2012.

Margaret worked as a pediatric and obstetric nurse, taught nursing, and spent most of her nursing career as a school nurse in the Aldine School District in Houston, Texas. She was a member of Metropolitan Baptist Church and the Northwest Art League.

Margaret was preceded in death by her son, Gene Bates and her husband, Leo Oringderff. Margaret is survived by her other two children and three grandchildren, her granddaughter through marriage and her great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.