Margaret Louise Hill

Born September 13, 1934, in southern Illinois to Diton J. and Celia Elvina (Brock) Stokeley, she grew up in Vincennes, Indiana. Although she tragically lost her father when she was nine years old, her mother provided a loving childhood with brothers Beryl and Gene and sister Eva Mae. She was the youngest in her family. She explored her neighborhood on her roller skates, worked at the A&W Root Beer drive-in, and enjoyed sock hops and basketball games. She once returned from a youth meeting in Wheatland, Indiana, in the back of a convertible instead of on the bus as she was supposed to do. We are sure it was a formative and fun experience. She attended Vincennes University and Goshen College and ultimately earned her Bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Indiana University/Purdue University Fort Wayne. She taught for several years, but the majority of her career was spent serving the Ohio Township Library System in Newburgh, Indiana. She was for many years the much-loved “story lady” at church and at the Newburgh library, and was also a long-time volunteer at the Brown County Public Library.

Margie married Charles Hill, a Methodist minister, in Vincennes in 1955, and the couple was blessed with four children, Carol, Nancy, Rich, and Mark. She was preceded in death by her son Mark and her husband Charles, and by her brothers Gene and Beryl. She is survived by her children Carol Marks, Nancy and Kenneth Carlson, and Rich Hill and Eli Rodriguez, as well as her grandchildren: Dylan Marks, Terran Marks and Jocelyn Maul, Laura Carlson, and Kevin Carlson, her sister Eva Mae, and numerous nieces and nephews.

An expert knitter, she loved knitting socks for her friends and relations, conquering the most outrageously complicated lace and stranded knitting patterns. She taught many friends to knit, sharing a skill that was one of the great joys of her life. She enjoyed a striped sock, as long as she could make the two socks in a pair look exactly alike. Whenever family or friends welcomed a new baby, Margie always gifted a pair of beautifully knitted baby booties. She could knit anything, from tiny sock earrings to argyle socks to starched lace angel decorations.

In her sixties Margie traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Ireland, England and Hawaii, often accompanied by her sister. She also traveled extensively in the United States, especially enjoying camping on the Maine coast with her family.

She loved Brown County sunsets, new shoes, purple yarn, teddy bears, puzzles, reading mysteries, and singing along to a rousing Charles Wesley hymn. She was a devoted friend in recent years of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom. She was patient, kind, funny, open-minded, and a loving friend and mother. She will be sorely missed.

A celebration of life will be held at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom on Sunday, March 23 at 2:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. David’s Episcopal Church (PO Box 1798, Nashville, IN 47448) or The Friends of Brown County Public Library (PO Box 1184, Nashville, IN 47448).