Margot Johnson

Margot Johnson of Peterborough, New Hampshire died peacefully Saturday, November 6, 2021 at the age of 100.

She was born September 19, 1921 in London, England, the eldest daughter of Leonard and Ethel (nee May) Burge of Aisby, Grantham, Lincoln, England. She and her three sisters enjoyed a happy rural childhood, after which Margot took a business course and went to work in an office inside London Bridge. Due to the bombing of London, Margot sought refuge at her parents’ cottage in Aisby. The American Army Airforce had an airfield near the village. On an afternoon bike ride in the countryside, an American G.I. (Richard C. Johnson (Dick) of Antrim, New Hampshire) saw her changing her bicycle tire. According to Richard, it was “love at first sight”. Soon after this encounter a courtship began and she married Richard in 1944. Their first daughter, Heather was born in England. When Richard’s enlistment ended, his new family returned to settle in Peterborough in a house on Union Street that was at one time part of the McDowell Colony. A second daughter, Rosemary, was born in July of 1948.

Margot served on the Peterborough Fire Department Women’s Auxiliary, kept busy with her girls’ school events, Girl Scouts, and the Unitarian Church. Margot and Richard were mainstays in the Unitarian Church: Margot with the Women’s Alliance as the appointed Housekeeper, and Richard with the Property Committee as Keeper of the Town Clock. They were first to arrive on Sundays and last to leave at nearly every event. Between them they tended the Church buildings with extraordinary skill and care.

Margot showed herself a true Englishwoman in her expertise with flowers. Her yard brimmed with blooms designed to attract birds. She and Richard led the annual spring flower walks. Both her pulpit arrangements and table flowers for Church and Alliance events were stunning and memorable.

Mrs. Johnson joined the library staff at Franklin Pierce College in 1968 and served there through 1987. She was a devoted “birder” and volunteered at NH Audubon for 26 years, both at Silk Farm and in the field. She especially enjoyed the annual Eagle Survey. She was honored as Audubon’s “Volunteer of the Year” in 2005, and worked diligently on updating the NH Audubon bird count database. Margot was a founding member of the Peterborough Food Bank; she oversaw her Church Food Bank collection and worked weekly at the Town Food Pantry. As a Hospice volunteer, she brought warmth and comfort to all her clients. She was recognized as a volunteer of 10 years for the Hospice of the Monadnock Region (1993). Her hands were never still, with knitting and quilting projects for the family, friends and charity. She generously supported her husband’s interest in photography and his artistic works and sculpture in various woods and metal.

She was predeceased by her sisters, Kathleen and Betty, her husband Richard and their daughter Heather, and is survived by her sister, Joan Measures, and her daughter (Rosemary) Sister Mary Danielle, RSM of Saginaw, Michigan; her nieces  Sarah Ackerman of Chatham , Massachusetts, and Pamela J. Smith of Southeast Harbor, Maine.

Services will be held at the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church, 25 Main Street Peterborough NH, on Monday, November 15, 2021, at 10:00AM. A burial will immediately follow at Riverside Cemetery, in Woodstock, VT.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Richard and Margot Johnson House Fund for the Unitarian Universalist Church, 25 Main Street, Peterborough NH 03458.

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