Margaret Joan Tuttle

Margaret C. Tuttle, widow of Donald L. Tuttle, died April 1, 2026. Born June 5, 1935 at Seffner, Florida, the daughter of Frederic E. Conkling, Jr., and Opal Angelyn Hardman, Margaret resided in Miami, Florida, until marriage to Lt. Donald Latham Tuttle in 1956. She graduated from Miami Senior High School in 1952. A distinguished student and leader, at Miami High, on Student Council and National Honor Society and also socially in the community, as a member of Tequesta Society, Children of the American Revolution.

She and Donald attended the University of Florida together. She graduated in 1957 earning a BAE degree in Education. An outstanding leader on campus she was elected Vice President of Women Students’ Association. Later she was tapped for Mortar Board and other honors. An outstanding member of Zeta Tau Alpha, she held high offices in the chapter and served as President of the Panhellenic Council at the University.

On December 29, 1956, she married Air Force First Lieutenant Donald Latham Tuttle at the Coral Gables Congregational Church. She then returned to the University of Florida to graduate with her 1957 class, then joining Don in Houston, Texas, where he was completing his USAF training service to become a navigator on a KC 195 aircraft. They were next posted to MacDill Air Force Base at Tampa, Florida where their first daughter, Laura Latham, was born.

After Donald completed his four years of service in the USAF, they returned to Gainesville, Florida, so Donald could pursue an MBA degree. Margaret began her teaching career in Levy County at Bronson High School, twenty-five miles from Gainesville.

After Don received his MBA, the family immediately moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1960 so Don could work on a PhD in finance. Margaret was hired to teach in elementary school. She also enrolled in graduate School of Education pursuing a Master of Education each summer. The degree was awarded in 1966. She then accepted the position as a Guidance Counselor in the Durham City School system. But again, she returned to the University of North Carolina for graduate studies, completing the course work for a doctoral degree. She also gave birth to a second daughter, Angelyn Everett in 1969.

Husband, Don, accepted the position Professor and Chairman of the Finance Department at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, following his five years as an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina in the Department of Finance. They had twenty-one wonderful years in Bloomington, Indiana.

Margaret’s duties shifted to guiding the building of a new house at 2806 Pine Lane in Bittner Woods. This house would include space for entertaining and recruiting Finance faculty and students. For the next twenty-one years, she devoted and divided her energies to serving various causes. They traveled extensively on sabbaticals awarded to Donald every seven years as well as travel associated with service on outside appointments to financial institutions like the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the American Red Cross Retirement Board. Margaret volunteered on the Indiana campus at the Alpha Xi Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha House, for twenty years, becoming President of the House Corporation.

This position involved managing the business of selecting a housemother to live with the girls, overseeing the finances of running the staff, maintaining and repairing the facility. She also became active in the community, was elected Bloomington Branch President of the AAUW; a member of the Executive Board of the Elizabeth Sage Clothing Collection housed in the Home Economics and Environmental Design Department at Indiana University.

The Sage Collection was responsible for proper restoration methods to preserve historic clothing for traveling exhibits and for the gallery shows at the University. In 1988, she accompanied a group of fashion design students on a European tour of design houses in London, Paris, Milan, Rome and Munich. They viewed the backstage costume storage and collection at La Scala.

On a sabbatical at Georgetown University, Margaret earned a paralegal certificate. While exploring for a job using those skills, she worked for the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Indianapolis conducting a reading program the Society sponsored in interested public schools. Following this experience, she was hired by Sunrise Greeting Card Company in Bloomington as their contracting agent for artwork and for soliciting new artists to buy art for card publication.

In 1976, her brother, Dr. F.E. Conkling, III, MD, died suddenly in Miami. Overnight, she became the legal guardian of his three children: Frederic IV, Winifred, and Joan. Within a short period of time and with Don’s expertise they managed the many demands made of them to finish parenting these children until each reached the age of majority.

In 1991, the Tuttles moved to Charlottesville, Virginia. Don was now employed by the Certified Financial Analyst Institute. Margaret, again was in charge of finding a site to build the final Tuttle house of her career. It was virgin land off Woodlands Road, past the reservoir on an open field that was once part of the historic King’s Great Wingfield Farm. She named it Lane’s End, situated at the end of the woods close to the reservoir. She was delighted to create, plan, and oversee the house and various gardens and flower beds on this acreage.

Charlottesville and the State of Virginia offered Margaret the opportunity for a new focus. The family genealogy had already given her the lineage for joining many heritage societies. She was eligible for the Jamestown Society. She joined Albemarle Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution in Charlottesville and was soon elected Chapter Regent. Albemarle Chapter and the Fourth of July Naturalization Ceremony at Monticello are an historic tradition Margaret revered. Her chapter gave each new citizen an American flag and copy of the US Constitution. As Regent, she placed a wreath on Thomas Jefferson’s grave.

She held the following elected offices:

National Society Dames of the Court of Honor:

Virginia State President

National Curator General

National Vice President General

Honorary Vice President General for Life

Daughters of Colonial Wars, Virginia State President

Daughters of Indian Wars, Virginia State President

National Society Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, South Branch Governor

Colonial Dames of the Seventeenth Century, Chapter President

Daughters of the American Colonists Col. Joshua Fry, Chapter President

Memberships in:

Jamestown Society

United Daughters of the Confederacy

Sons and Daughters of Colonial and Antebellum Bench and Bar 1565-1861

Order of the Descendants of the Justiciars of England 1260-1261

National Society United States Daughters of 1812

Marking the graves of qualifying ancestors, marking historic homes and sites preserved by their owners, of all that has been discovered and preserved at Jamestown were activities that gave her satisfaction and affirmation of love of country and preservation of American history. She lived in awe that she could prove she had over 400 years of family history in America.

She designed and developed a small business selling logo name badges for the groups to which she belonged in order to produce the needed income to support the cost of projects involved in marking historic homes, and graves of patriot ancestors. She loved history, visiting historic places; she believed in protecting historic sites. She supported this interest by her donations to buy battlefields sites. She supported veterans through direct contributions and also to McGuire Hospital in Richmond, Virginia by donation to Albemarle Chapter NSDAR.

Margaret is survived by daughter, Laura Latham and Alexander Pivateau, grandson, of Galveston, Texas. Atlanta, Georgia; daughter Angelyn Alexander; wife of John G. Alexander; granddaughters, Katie and Lara Alexander. Other survivors are nephew, F.E. Conkling, IV, Gainesville, Florida; Winifred Rak, Vienna, Virginia; Joan Hoover, San Antonio, Texas.

Margaret will be buried in Ivy Creek United Methodist Cemetery beside Don who died in 2023. They had a long, loving and productive marriage of 68 years.