Margaret Karg, 100, a former Baker City resident, died June 27, 2009, at the Idaho Falls Care and Rehabilitation Center, where she had been a resident for 10 years.
There will be a joint memorial service for Margaret and her husband, Otto Karg, at 2 p.m. Friday at Wood Funeral Home, 273 N. Ridge Ave., Idaho Falls. There will be a visitation time afterward. Burial will be in Rose Hill Cemetery.
Her maiden name was Margurite Maria McCarty. She was born on Nov. 30, 1908, at Woodland, Wash., to Riley and Addie Chandler McCarty. She was the third of four children.
Her family ran a livery stable and her dad, who died of pneumonia when she was 10 years old, worked in the mill at Cornucopia. The first winter at Cornucopia, their family lived in two tents until houses were built.
She had a happy childhood that included sledding, fishing, long horseback rides to church, and 12-mile holiday trips to her grandfather’s house in a horse-drawn sleigh (heated rocks were used to keep them warm during the trip). When she was ready to enter the fourth grade, her family moved to Baker. She was a 1927 Baker High School graduate.
She married Otto Frank Karg at Baker on Aug. 4, 1928. They were married for 72 years.
Margaret and Otto began their marriage during the Great Depression. Otto was fortunate to have a job on the Baker Fire Department.
The happiest period of Margaret’s life was when she was raising her son, William “Bill” Franklin Karg. He was born at Baker in 1929.
Margaret was a wonderful wife, mother, and homemaker, family members said. She enjoyed reading, playing bridge, getting together with friends, participating in a women’s study group, camping, hunting trips and crocheting.
One day when Bill was about 7 years old, while he and his mother were coloring Easter eggs, they had a fire upstairs in their house. Margaret called Otto at the fire department to report the fire.
He said “Will you repeat that?” because he didn’t recognize her voice or his own home address. She told him, “Come home. Your house is on fire!”
Margaret and Otto moved to Idaho Falls in May 1950, when Otto accepted the position of fire chief, to organize the fire department for the Atomic Energy Commission at the National Reactor Testing Station (now the Idaho National Laboratory). Bill followed them to Idaho Falls and established an optometry practice. Otto died on Aug. 9, 2000.
Margaret attended the Christian church in her younger years and believed in Jesus.
She was preceded in death by her parents; one brother; two sisters; her husband, Otto; her son, Bill; a great-grandson, Jake Boyle; and a great-great-granddaughter, Aderah Karg.
She had one son, five grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and 10 great-great-grandchildren.
Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.woodfuneralhome.com.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, July 01, 2009
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor