Margaret O. Burgan

Margaret Ogilvy Burgan passed away on September 7, 2017, at the age of 96. She was the daughter of the late William Forrest and Sybil Pleasance Ogilvy. She and her twin sister, Florence, were born in Cherokee, Iowa, on March 17, 1921, on their mother’s birthday. The family moved to Holstein, Iowa, which is where the twins started school. In 1936, Margaret’s father was seriously ill and sold his business. The family traveled to the West Coast and settled in Astoria, Oregon. By this time, Margaret’s younger brother was part of the family. After a year, the family returned to the Midwest where their father bought a business in Watertown, South Dakota. The twins graduated from high school here and attended South Dakota State College. Graduation was a time of true parting. Their brother, a marine pilot, was killed and Florence returned to Watertown to teach, while Margaret taught school in Bridgewater, South Dakota. The following year Margaret began working on her Master’s Degree at Iowa State College. She then taught in the Home Economics Department and Child Development. At Iowa State, she met her future husband, Robert (Bob) Horace Burgan. He had returned to college after the end of World War II. After Bob’s graduation, the couple moved to Fairfield, Iowa, and started their family of two sons. After moves to Nashville, Tennessee, and Ames, Iowa, the family moved to Fort Madison, Iowa. Margaret, after volunteering in the Head Start Program, started teaching as a substitute at the middle school level. She thoroughly enjoyed working with children again. Her older son was in college and her younger son in high school. When the family moved to Bettendorf, Iowa, she continued her substitute teaching in middle school. At the death of one of the teachers, she was asked to teach for a year. The year stretched to ten years. Margaret and Bob both retired in 1986. Since their older son had been transferred to Lake Jackson, Texas, and their younger son had moved to Houston, Texas, after graduating from college, they decided upon the Rio Grande Valley as a winter home. After four years of moving back and forth, they bought a house in Sunshine Country Club Estates and became Texans. Margaret still enjoyed working with children and for ten years worked in the Host Program. In their later years, Bob and Margaret moved to Golden Palms Retirement Community in Harlingen, Texas. Margaret continued to volunteer: she served on the Activity Committee and the Advisory Counsel. Throughout the years, Margaret maintained her membership in PEO. In each community, she was active as an officer: she believed in their program of furthering advanced education for women. She was a fifty-year member. Margaret was extremely proud of her Scottish heritage. She and her sister were born three months after their mother’s arrival in the U.S. from Scotland. Her father had emigrated two months earlier to organize their new home.

Margaret was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Robert Horace Burgan; her brother, Doug Ogilvy; and her brother-in-law, Colonel Doug Kane. She is survived by her twin sister, Florence Kane;  her two sons, David Lee Burgan (Bonnie) of Traverse City, Michigan; Paul Douglas Burgan (Lisa) of Houston, Texas; her five grandchildren, Laura Burgan Paterson (Andy) of Ann Arbor, Michigan; Brian James Burgan (Rochelle) of Woodbury, Minnesota; Andrea Burgan O’Connor (John) of Troy, Michigan; Ross Ogilvy Burgan of Corpus Christi, Texas; and David Smyth Burgan of Houston, Texas; her three great grandchildren, Ashley Margaret Paterson and Kailey Ruth Paterson of Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Anna Katherine Burgan of Woodbury, Minnesota.

There will be a private family celebration of her life in the near future.

Memorials can be made online to: International Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood.

You are invited to sign the online guestbook or share a memory at www.buckashcraft.com.

Arrangements are with Buck Ashcraft Funeral Home.