Categories: Death Notices > obituary-notices
Death notice
November 18, 1928 - July 14, 2024 Sacramento — Margaret, a native of Viola, ID, died peacefully at her son's home in Sacramento, CA, on Sunday, June 14, 2024, after a brief illness. She was 95. She was preceded in death by two older brothers, Frank and Lawrence Weber of Moscow, ID; a younger sister, Katherine Weber Starr of Hillsboro, OR; and her husbands, Art Nelson and Slim Baumgartner. Margaret was born on the family farm in Viola, ID, where the family is still active in the Palouse farming community producing wheat, barley, lentils, and peas on the family's 360 acres. She attended elementary school at Viola and graduated from Moscow High School in 1946. She attended the University of Idaho from 1946-1950 and graduated with a degree in home economics. She moved to Lewiston, to work for the Idaho Extension Service. The beginning of the 1950s was the beginning of the use of electric appliances in farming communities in that area where her duties were to teach farm and city housewives the use of this new technology. (How to cook with an electric stove, use of a refrigerator and freezer, sewing and washing machines and other home appliances that we take for granted today, food canning and preserving fruits and vegetables.) This job required her to travel to farm homes and homes in the Northern areas of Washington and Idaho and also advising Four-H groups. In 1950-51, she met and married Arthur Lee Nelson, of Lewiston. Their only son, Arthur Scott Nelson, was born in 1952, and later that year they moved to Spokane, WA, where Art was a salesman for Craft Foods, and Margaret was a demonstrator for Craft at local stores in the area. In 1957, she became the Home Economist for the Continental Baking Company (Wonder Bread Hostess Cakes). One of her main duties was the educational bakery tours to school groups, teaching them about the wheat production in the Inland Empire, how wheat is made into flour and then bread and cake. If anyone from the 1950s-'60s remembers a trip through the Wonder Bread Bakery, it was probably Margaret who took them through. In the early 1970s, she worked for the Spokane Community College system teaching special needs young adults how to live on their own. In the late '70s, she worked for Amfac Electric where she demonstrated and gave classes on how to use Litton microwave ovens. She and Art would travel throughout Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Western Montana teaching clients how to cook and not be afraid of this new technology. (She would do the talking while Art passed around food samples that she'd prepared.) With the advancement, knowledge, and major purchasing of microwaves, the internet became the demise of the on-sight educational program that was no longer needed. She retired from being a Home Economist in the 1980s. Margaret and Art traveled to Canada and Europe before retiring to Yuma, AZ, until Art died in 1999. In 2000, she married Harland "Slim" Baumgartner of Chewelah, WA. Here she learned to play golf. In winter they would drive their Dodge Van to Yuma and stop at Scott's for a few days and proceed to her home at Saguaro Estates. They enjoyed playing golf with other "snowbirds" from all parts of the US and Canada, going to swap meets, playing cards, and traveling. When the weather started to get too hot, they would pack up and head back north, stopping again at Scott's. When Slim died in 2014, Margaret decided to live in Yuma full-time to be with friends, including Howard Brown, who became her life partner. In December of 2022, Howard was experiencing ongoing health problems, and in January of 2023 they both decided to part; Howard going to live with his son, Gary, in Temecula, CA, and Margaret to live with her son, Scott, in Sacramento. Howard would pass two weeks later on January 17. While living in Sacramento, Margaret enjoyed traveling with her son to tune some 40 pipe organs in the Sacramento Valley, going as far South as Fresno and North to Ukiah, going with him to practice at his church, All Saints Episcopal in Sacramento, where he is Organist-Choirmaster, and helping to do office work of filing and organizing; things to keep her busy. Margaret also enjoyed reading, gardening, cooking, baking, cleaning, organizing, and attending sports events. She also enjoyed summer weekend trips at Lake Coeur d'Alene, ID, boating and unwinding with a gin and tonic and frozen daiquiris, and later, boxed wine! She was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, Ladies of the Oriental Shrine, and the Spokane Sports Car Club. She was a member of Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Spokane Valley, and All Saints Episcopal in Sacramento. A Memorial Service will be held in Spokane on Thursday, September 19, Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 127 E. 12th Ave. Musical Prelude begins at 10:30 a.m., and the Memorial Service at 11:00 a.m. Interment will be in the Weber family plot, Moscow, ID, on Friday, September 20, 11:00 a.m., Moscow Cemetery, 1612-1682 Troy Road. Memorials may be given to The Shriners Hospital or the All Saint Episcopal Church Organ Fund or Concert Fund, 2076 Sutterville Rd., Sacramento, CA 95831.
