Margaret Hammer

Margaret Mateo Hammer Age 87, San Rafael resident of over 47 years, died suddenly and peacefully at home on February 23, 2013. Margaret was born October 1, 1925 in Lihue, Kauai, Territory of Hawaii, the youngest of eight children of Puerto Rican immigrants Augusto and Margarita (Negron) Mateo. After World War II she moved with her family to San Francisco from Honolulu, Hawaii where she had witnessed the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. She served as an usher at the one of the founding sessions of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945. Margaret married John Frederick Hammer on March 11, 1957. She retired from her position as an executive secretary at the Presidio of San Francisco to raise three children. The family settled in the Mont Marin section of San Rafael in 1965. As a family they enjoyed hiking on Mt. Tamalpais, vacationing in Yosemite, their children's music and sports events, and gardening. John and Margaret enjoyed square dancing together. After John's death in 1980, Margaret returned to the Presidio to work for the Recruiting Brigade, and retired from civilian service there in 1992 to help raise granddaughter Cauri. Margaret met David Ferdun in 1992 and they enjoyed many years of shared interests in hiking, and traveling until David's death in 2010. Margaret was in regular attendance at YMCA workout sessions and usually logged four miles on her morning walks in her neighborhood. Margaret's hospitality was legendary, her housekeeping impeccable, and many described her as elegant and gracious. Her grandchildren counted her as a friend on facebook.com and she often posted status updates. Margaret is survived by children Karen Thurston (John), Diane Seymour (Jim), and John Hammer, Jr. (Lauri); her grandchildren William, Shelby, and Ian Thurston, Cassandra and Christina Seymour, and Cauri and Kyle Hammer, and great-grandson Reid Thurston; many nieces and nephews, a large extended family, and her many friends in the Marin County Chapter of the Widowed Persons Association of California where she served as secretary. Funeral services and a celebration of Margaret's life will be Saturday, March 2, at 1:00 p.m. at All Saints Lutheran Church in Novato. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Margaret's name to the Tamalpais Conservation Club www.Tamalpais.org.

Published in Marin Independent Journal on February 27, 2013