Margaret Ellen Wiltshire

Margaret Ellen (Foster) Wiltshire passed away peacefully on Sunday, October 17, 2010, at Brookdale Place at Chanate in Santa Rosa. Margaret was born on September 20, 1922, in Oakland, California as the second of three children born to Evans Ronald and Bertha Mabel (Galloway) Foster. Margaret ("Midge") grew up in Berkeley and attended school there before graduating with a B.A. in general education from U.C. Berkeley in 1944. Margaret obtained her elementary teaching credential and later attended San Francisco State University receiving a Master's degree in visually handicapped education in 1967. Margaret first taught at a Santa Rosa elementary school and then at other schools in the SF Bay Area. She started as a substitute teacher at the California School for the Blind in Berkeley in 1966 after which she taught in the school's deaf-blind department and retired in 1976. Margaret met her future husband, Lyman Lacey Wiltshire, at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley and they were married there on August 7, 1948. Margaret's volunteer work began with teaching Sunday school at the First Congregational Church and continued with the Girl Scouts as a leader like her mother for 10 years, including seven years with her sighted-girls troop, which eventually added a few blind girls, and three years with her blind-girls troop of 18 girls while she taught at the School for the Blind. Margaret had joined one of the first Brownie troops in the U.S. at age seven, had advanced to become a Golden Eaglet (the highest honor) at age 16, and was awarded the Thanks Badge, the highest honor in adult Girl Scouting. Margaret was a member of the following Santa Rosa and local organizations: Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)- Santa Rosa Chapter (past secretary), Girl Scouts-Konocti Council, Glen Ellen Historical Society, Kenwood Community Church (became its Historian), Kenwood Community Club, Sonoma County Genealogical Society (past president), and Sonoma Valley Historical Society Museum (docent for 13 years). Margaret was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Lyman who passed away just after their 50th anniversary in 1998, and her younger son Douglass Foster Wiltshire. Margaret is survived by her children Richard Lyman (Glenda) Wiltshire of Littleton, Colorado and Martha (Stephen) Dasovic of Nevada City, California. She is also survived by her older brother, John D. Foster, of Walnut Creek; by numerous cousins, nephews and nieces; and by her two grandsons, Brian Douglass Wiltshire who recently married Julie (Balk) and Craig Steven Wiltshire who live in Denver and Aurora, Colorado, respectively. Friends and family are invited to attend a Memorial Service on Saturday, December 11, 2010, at 2:30 p.m. at the Kenwood Community Church in Kenwood. Private interment will be at Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to: Kenwood Community Church, Kenwood, CA; Sutter VNA and Hospice, 1110 N. Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95401; or the Kenwood Fire Department, Kenwood, CA. Arrangements under the care of: NEPTUNE SOCIETY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA