Margaret Hollingshead

Sylvia Margaret Hollingshead was born June 26, 1930 to Gerald S. and Shirley Grace Mann Hollingshead in Kansas City, Kansas. She departed this life of 86 years Friday afternoon, December 16, 2016 at the Mitchell County Hospital Resident Care Center in Beloit, Kansas.

Margaret, as she was known and loved by all, moved with her family to the Beloit area shortly after she was born. She grew up on a farm, attended a rural school and then graduated from Beloit High School in the Class of 1948. After high school, she attended college in Kansas City for a year and a half and then Phillips University of Enid, Oklahoma for a year. She returned to north central Kansas where she taught in an Osborne county rural school for a year and then for two years at Mankato Elementary School.

Margaret felt a need for more adventure in her life and so she attended an airline training school in Kansas City after which she moved to Atlanta, Georgia and began working with Delta Airlines. Her people loving, outgoing personality enabled her to be very successful. During her tenure with Delta Airlines, she worked as a reservation specialist and also tried her hand at group sales for many years. Over the years, she decided that she needed a change of location and transferred to Kansas City, then Dallas, Texas, and finally Denver, Colorado. She enjoyed her job and liked being able to transfer and moved to different parts of the country. Margaret was able to go to Europe several times with different groups affiliated with Delta and enjoy some traveling herself. She worked for Delta Airlines for 33 years before retiring in about 1988. After her retirement, she stayed on in Denver for several years working for a travel agency. In 1991, she returned to Beloit to help take care of her mother.

Aside from traveling, Margaret loved sewing. She began quilting while in Denver and after moving to Beloit became very passionate, doing all of her handiwork and having the quilts machine stitched and finished by others. She enjoyed needlework and cross stitch.

Margaret had other passions too. First and foremost, her faith in our Lord Jesus Christ was very important to her and she was a longtime member of First Christian Church. She loved music, especially country with a little honky-tonk and polka as well. While she enjoyed basketball games on television, her first sporting love was baseball. Not one to sit idle, Margaret enjoyed working on large colorful puzzles. Margaret had a deep love for animals, especially cardinals and blue birds, and she enjoyed her dogs, the last of which was Laci.

Margaret was preceded in death by her father Gerald Hollingshead, her mother Shirley Hollingshead, and one brother Lowell Hollingshead.

Margaret will be deeply missed by her sister Marian Hamilton of Aurora, Colorado, a host of nieces and nephews and many friends.

Graveside Services will be held at 11:00 A.M. Thursday, December 29, 2016 at Elmwood Cemetery. Memorials may be given to First Christian Church. Visitation will be from 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Wednesday at the McDonald Funeral Home.