Mullady Crigler

Margaret Mullady Voelker Crigler was born September 11, 1948, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Frank Voelker, Jr. and Virginia Wilson Voelker, and raised in Lake Providence, Louisiana, on the banks of the lake. She was the oldest of six children, and spent childhood Sunday lunches around her grandparents’ dinner table eating off of silver and fine china. Her memories returned again and again to her formidable aunts, her doctor uncle with the greenhouse who delivered her children, the games she played with her siblings, and the halls of her ancestral home. She passed away peacefully July 17, 2026, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Mullady attended Lake Providence High School, and was fatefully introduced to Jim Crigler from Tensas Parish in a Senior English competition at the Louisiana Literary Rally. Upon graduation in 1966, she enrolled in Notre Dame of Maryland where she spent a year taking introductory classes and exploring cities along the Atlantic seaboard. She missed the south and transferred to Louisiana State University for her sophomore year, where she practice taught at the University Lab School and was a member of Kappa Delta sorority.

She married Jim during her senior year. On an early date, they rode horses on his family farm, a place their family together would come to gather in the future and hold dear. After earning her degree in secondary education from LSU, she taught in Iberville Parish while Jim worked toward his law degree, living in the married student apartments and learning how to cook and survive and how to be adults, together. From their first date in December of 1967, until her death, they remained a true team, never apart for more than a few days for just shy of 60 years.

They lived for over twenty years and raised their children, Kate, Jim and Ginny, in Lake Providence. Mullady approached motherhood as she approached most everything in her life— with conviction and confidence and love. She and Jim raised their children according to their values, showing them, rarely telling, how to live well and to be true to who they were.

She later received her masters in education from what was then Northeast Louisiana University. She taught at, and eventually became principal of, St Patrick’s School, before returning to her first love, the classroom, at Briarfield Academy. She taught her children and all of their friends and countless others, including much earlier, her baby brother George. Her favorite students were the ones who everyone else misunderstood. She looked for signs of genius in those who thought outside of the box, challenged the givens, and had a true sense of themselves though no one would have known she had favorites. She had a knack for making everyone feel seen, for truly listening, and for asking the exact right question to elicit a person’s truth. She understood the influence she had and saw it as an honor, a responsibility that was nearly sacred.

After Lake Providence, she and Jim lived in Monroe for sixteen years where she became a pioneer in remote tele-learning and conducted workshops for teachers in several northern Louisiana parishes. When both retired in 2016, they moved to Baton Rouge to be closer to their children and grandchildren. She spent her life there in the stands of basketball gyms and baseball and soccer fields, cheering for her grandchildren; in school pickup lines; as a member of and leader of several book clubs. A lifelong seeker, she expanded her mind and understanding of the world through adult education classes through LSU that she took with Jim. She had recently completed a course of the Education for Ministry program at St. James Episcopal Church, which spanned scripture, history, ethics, and theology. In every setting, she made meaningful friendships and added to the legion of her admirers.

Mullady loved her family, books, ideas, baseball, Sonic unsweetened tea, and she loved her life. She liked to say she went three for three with the people her children married. She adored her grandkids, having a special “thing” with each of them. She believed her sisters to be among the most interesting and brilliant people she knew, and shared a deep bond with nieces and nephews and in-laws from St. Joseph to New Orleans. She readily described herself as an introvert, though she often became the quiet center of any gathering she attended— not because she commanded the room with her presence but because she listened with genuine curiosity. She thrived in one-on-one conversations where she proved herself to be a woman deeply wise, devastatingly clever and funny, and always open to the mystery. She will be remembered as such by everyone who knew her.

She is survived by her husband Jim, their three children, Kate Besselman (Tommy), Jim Crigler III (Christel), and Ginny Anderson (Casey); Kate and Tommy’s son, Thomas Besselman III, and daughter Izzy; Jim and Christel’s son James IV and daughter Audrey; and Ginny and Casey’s sons, Joseph and William Anderson; her brother Frank Voelker III; and her sister Mary Voelker Clauss; and a host of cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Mullady was preceded in death by her parents, her brothers David and George, her sister Kitty, and a stillborn, unnamed infant.

Visitation for friends and family in southern Louisiana will be held at Rabenhorst Funeral Home, 825 Government Street, Baton Rouge, on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. After a private family memorial service, visitation for northern Louisiana friends and family will be held at Byerley House, 600 Lake Street in Lake Providence, Louisiana on Friday, July 24, 2026 from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. The family suggests in lieu of flowers that memorials be made to a cause that reminds you of Mullady.