Margaret Elizabeth Atkins, 78, of Morgantown, passed away peacefully on Jan. 8, 2024, at an assisted living facility in Houston, Texas.
Margaret was born in 1945 in Chambersburg, Pa., to the late John and Frances Freet. She graduated from Greenwood Joint High School in Millerstown, Pa., in 1963 and Bethany College with a bachelor of arts degree (summa cum laude) in Art History in 1979. In 1966 Margaret met John Marshall Atkins in Morgantown, and they married in 1968. She and John loved each other for 55 years of marriage.
She found pleasure in simplicity: family dinners, coffee with neighbor-sister Joan, walking in the woods, collecting seashells on the beach. She spent many happy hours cultivating herbs, flowers, and vegetables in her Grandview Avenue garden. Throughout her life she loved animals, caring for dogs, a cat, a horse, and a duck.
Her family and friends have numerous examples of her skill as an artist: she was known for her ornate and painstaking papercuttings following the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of Scherenschnitte.
Margaret was happiest at Christmas time, when she was a burst of energy, decorating the house and creating beautiful ornaments for friends and family. She was joyful with family through the Christmas season just two weeks preceding her passing.
For many years she served the Morgantown chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
She is survived by her loving husband, John; son, Ben Atkins and his wife Amy; grandson, Jack Atkins; brother, John Freet Jr.; nephew, John (J.C.) Freet; niece, Rebecca Lomax; a number of great- and great-great-nieces and nephews; cousins, Betsy Jenkins and Tom Bolander. In addition to her parents, Margaret was predeceased by her brother, Benjamin Freet of Carlisle, Pa.
Services will be held at Suncrest United Methodist Church, in Morgantown, at 11 a.m. on May 4.
