Margaret Makepeace McKenzie McCutchen

Mom, known to the rest of you as “Margaret” or “Maggi” or “Gram”, closed her tired, earthly eyes early in the morning on Sunday, April 7, 2024. When she opened them moments later, she was greeted by the radiant glory of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and, we imagine, the welcoming smile of her beloved husband, Bill, who preceded her in death in 1992.

Maggi was born on June 26, 1933, spending the first 6 months of her life in an orphanage in Washington, D.C. Her birth name was Anne Elizabeth (Anne – “full of grace” and Elizabeth – “God is my oath”) Krippenstapel but was changed to Margaret Makepeace McKenzie when she was adopted by Mildred McKenzie in 1934.

She attended the prestigious St. Anne’s Belfield School in Charlottesville, VA, before moving to the Big Apple and working at various jobs in the city she loved. She joked that while at school in Virginia as one of the few girls from above the Mason-Dixon Line, a teacher during American history class encouraged her and another girl to remain silent as they discussed “our most recent unpleasantness” (aka The Civil War to most everyone else). Mom had a way of reminding you that she was a Jersey girl with a love for “The City” and was proud of where she came from.

During the Billy Graham Crusade in NYC in 1957, Mom attended to laugh a bit at this southern preacher. In God’s divine irony, He got the greatest laugh when she walked down the aisle and towards the front and committed her life to Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. That event forever shaped her and formed her. The orphan was now an adopted child of the King of the Universe. The rest of her life was a movement from adoption to adoption.

She eventually returned to Virginia and earned a degree from the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in preparation for a life of ministry. At a square dance one evening she met a young southern gentleman from Birmingham, AL, and fell in love. She married that southern boy, Bill McCutchen, on June 5, 1964. Family lore has it that she was almost widowed on her honeymoon when Dad tried to get a closer picture of a black bear on the Blue Ridge Parkway. After that close call they had two cubs of their own together, Lynda McCutchen Welsh (58) and Bill McCutchen, III (56). We have joked that we are from a mixed marriage – parents from New Jersey and Alabama.

She embraced the role as a pastor’s wife and ministered with Dad in Wilmington, NC; Columbia, SC; Cape Girardeau, MO; and Charlotte, NC. Our home was filled with love and care and lots of “cream-of” casseroles. Along the way there were camping trips and other adventures in at least half of the 50 states. Mom could always be found in the stands of softball games; making costumes for school plays; helping with Scouts, and generally being a really great mom to us and a loving wife to Dad.

After Dad’s death in 1992, Mom decided to embrace rather than reject her new life of singleness at 59. She trained and worked in several Christian ministries. She then surprised us all by joining Youth With a Mission (YWAM) and serving in Hawaii and Costa Rica for two years (even venturing down the Amazon River in Colombia at age 70). She returned to the States and eventually moved to Winston-Salem to live with her daughter, Lynda, and Lynda’s husband, Patrick, and their daughter, Meredith. She was an active and beloved member of Reynolda Presbyterian Church serving in several ministry areas and sharing the hope and love of Christ with many.

She was most proud of her family. It was obvious in any conversation you had with her. She was proud of Lynda’s accomplishments as a business owner, wife, and mom. She watched Bill follow in his father’s footsteps into pastoral ministry and celebrated him well. She loved her grandsons, Will, Zach, and Matthew, and granddaughter, Meredith. In recent years she welcomed three great-grandsons, Liam, Hampton, and Casey. She was a very proud Gram, and she will be missed deeply by all who knew and loved her.

We would be remiss in not saying something about what was most important to Mom and that was her love for Jesus Christ. Mom is currently with Him in Heaven and now knows in full what she knew in part throughout her life – that she is completely loved and accepted and known and safe. She is dancing (maybe not a square dance) with her King and Savior. She would invite you to consider your life and consider a relationship with Christ as well. Who knows the adventure He will take you on that ultimately ends in glory with Him.

Thy mercy seat is open still,

Here let my soul retreat

With humble hope attend Thy will,

And wait beneath Thy feet.

(from “Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul” by Anne Steele)