Margaret Dutton Williams

Margaret Fern Dugger Dutton Williams, July 9, 1923- March 18, 2016 Margaret Fern passed away peacefully after a comfortable four year residency at the Rolling Hills Manor. When asked how she liked the food at Rolling Hills Manor, Margaret would say “Any food I don’t have to cook, that someone makes for me, is always good food.” And that was Margaret Fern. She always had a kind or positive word for any situation. Fern was born on a ranch in Cedaredge, Colorado and lived through drought, tornados and the depression in the tough Dugger pioneer family. Fern attended the University of Wyoming at Cheyenne, Wyoming and when WWII started she tried to enlist in the Navy. She had a bad ear drum and was classified 4F , which she always remarked “the nerve of them to reject me!” She then moved with her family to Tacoma, Washington and worked building battleships. Fern was a welder in the shipyard and her father was a ship painter. Fern met her first husband, Sgt. Curtis Dutton, a Purple Heart combat veteran, at Fort Lewis, Washington. They were married, and in 1949, moved to Winthrop Harbor and built their first house at 14th and Franklin. Curtis and Fern started D&L Garbage Company and Fern ran the office and did the billing for many years. They lived in Winthrop Harbor and raised their four daughters in this little community. Ann Paulson was another young wife with small children in the neighborhood in 1950, in Winthrop Harbor, and she likes to tell the story how they shared a telephone party line and Fern would tell Ann that she was talking too long on the phone and to get off the party line to let others use the phone. The Duttons, Williams, Jaspers, Waltons, Paulsons, Fosslands, Smiths, Evans and many other young families in Winthrop Harbor were part of the “Greatest Generation“, a generation who grew up in the Great Depression, and went on to fight in WWII or supported the war effort at home. These men and women served in the military and on the home front, not for fame or recognition, but because it was the right thing to do. Curtis and Fern raised their four daughters with the duty of God and Country, family, service, and justice. As a family, they participated in functions supporting the American Legion, VFW, Moose, Lions and the Purple Heart organizations. Fern never let her family miss an opportunity to be color guards in parades or any other community activity she supported. The Methodist Church was their anchor in the community and all the kids participated in Confirmation classes, Sunday school and MYF. Fern was always the organizer in her family of girls, got them where they needed to go, had them dressed appropriately, whether it was Easter outfits or Girl Scout uniforms. She always knew where the wooden spoon was when she needed it. She was the wife that cooked supper every night for her family with meat, potatoes and a vegetable and the whole family appeared at supper time. Fern saw to it that her girls learned common sense, the value that hard work never hurt anybody, to be independent thinkers and self sufficient. Her first husband, Curtis, died after being together more than thirty years. She married Everett Williams in 1980 and they spent the next twenty five years traveling in their motor home between Mesa, Arizona and Illinois Beach State Park and enjoyed a great retirement lifestyle, with a large extended family with lots of grandkids and great grandkids. Margaret has always been called Fern, a nick name her mother gave her as a baby. When Fern had a mini stroke in 2010, at the age of 87, it not only wiped out her short term memory but took away that “F” word out of her life. She only wanted to be called by her given name of Margaret after that. Margaret “Fern” is survived by her children, Terry Evans (Hardy) of Racine, WI, Patricia Brown (Daniel) Weldon of IL, Cindy Johnson Stuart of Newburyport, MA, Rhonda (Kenneth) Rottmann of Kenosha, WI, J Williams (Darlene) of Beach Park, IL, and Mary Williams of Florence, AZ; twelve grandchildren, Stacy (William) Alicea, Darcy (Scott) Holverson, Richard (Amanda) Brown, Curtis (Meridith) Brown, Curtis (Elise) Johnson, James Johnson, Megan (Russell) Bach, Kelly (Ed) Nipple, Jason Williams, Erin (Jon) Petersonis, Lesia (Jason) Leitzinger, and Emily (Jason) Carlson; twenty one great grandchildren, Stephanie Repp, Ashley Repp, Emil Zemanek, Skylar Holverson, Haley Holverson, Grace Holverson, Morganne Brown, Kramer Brown, Dutton Brown, Minna Brown, Joy Brown, Charis Brown, Knowlton Bach, John Bach, Kaylee Williams, Henry Petersen, Violet Peterson, Dilen Norgard, Ayden Carlson, Levi Carlson, and Elias Carlson. She was preceded in death by her husbands, Curtis Dutton and Everett Williams and one son, Thomas Williams, her parents Lauren and Clara Dugger and two sisters, Harriett Bussard and Hazel Knowles Visitation will be 5:00 until 8:00 pm Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at Congdon Funeral Home, 3012 Sheridan Road, Zion. Private interment will be held later. The family is requesting no flower donations.