Margaret Evelyn (Waite) Traurig

Margaret Evelyn (Waite) Traurig; 87; Village of Lake Orion; Michigan died on Saturday, June 9th at home due to cancer. Margaret donated her body for scientific research to the University of Michigan Whole Body Donor program. A memorial mass will be celebrated on Saturday, June 16th at 10 a.m. in the Saint Hugo of the Hills Chapel. Margaret was born on November 25th, 1924 in Winner, South Dakota. She moved with her parents and family to Sioux City, Iowa as a child. She graduated from Cathedral High School. She met an Army Air Corps soldier during World War II while she was a Red Cross volunteer, then later married him. The couple lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Elkton, Maryland before settling into LeMars, Iowa in 1960. Her lasting legacy is the sheer will and immeasurable courage to obtain a divorce in order to secure a better future for her children. Thanks to the support of her father and brothers, and against the incredible odds as a single mother in the late 1960s with meager income, Margaret earned a baccalaureate degree from Westmar College in LeMars in 1972. She moved to Dubuque, Iowa in the summer of 1973 and worked for the United States government in the Social Security Administration for over 25 years. Margaret had ten children. Three died in early childhood: twin daughters Mary Ann & Mary Margaret in 1953 and another daughter Susan in 1959. Three sons have died recently: Donald in 2004, Kevin in 2009, and Michael in 2010. Margaret had four brothers. Her brother James died in 1984 and her brother Bob died in 2003. Margaret is survived by her sons, Buddy of Cape Coral, Florida, Thomas of the Village of Lake Orion, Michigan, and Robert of Bloomfield Township, Michigan, and her daughter Patricia Markevicius of Westmont, Illinois. Margaret is also survived by her brothers, the Reverend Patrick Waite of San Diego, California and Donald Waite of Saratoga, California. May she rest in peace. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to SPARKS-GRIFFIN FUNERAL HOME, Lake Orion, where reflections may be shared with the family by visiting www.sparksgriffin.com. Services: 10:00AM at St. Hugo's Catholic Church on Saturday, June 16th, 2012 (map/driving directions)