Margaret Huntoon Wallon

Margaret Huntoon WALLON Margaret Huntoon Wallon, the last surviving grandchild of pioneer Washington Territory businessman Henry Elliott Holmes and Kate Turner Homes, died at her home in Shoreline on Sunday June 27 in the presence of her family. It was nine days after her 95th birthday. To more people than we will ever know, she was a confidant, a mentor, a cheerleader, a teacher, a role model. She was a shoulder to cry on, a friend to share laughter. Her intelligence and integrity were never questioned. She was an avid reader and insatiably curious about developments in the world and in the large extended family of which she was the matriarch. That family, which includes cousins, nieces, nephews and other relatives too numerous to tally, spans the globe from Afghanistan to Australia to Germany to all regions of the United States. Margaret was born in Seattle on June 17, 1916, two days after the first flight of the first airplane built by Boeing. Her father was Richard Waldron Huntoon, a graduate of the University of Washington Law School and once the captain of the UW football team. Her mother, Ruth Holmes Huntoon, was a founder of the Women's University Club in Seattle and a close friend of Frances Perkins, the first woman ever appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. Margaret's grandfather Henry Elliott Holmes founded the first drugstore in Washington Territory, in Walla Walla in the 1880s. He later moved to Seattle, before the Great Seattle Fire, which destroyed the city's entire downtown core in June 1889. He was a co-founder of Stewart & Holmes, a large wholesale drug company in Seattle. Margaret lived most of her life in Seattle and its suburbs. She also lived in Vermont, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Port Angeles and Tacoma. In her young days she attended St. Nicholas School, Garfield High School, and the University of Washington, from which she graduated. In 1940 she married George Buck Jr. Later she taught at Annie Wright Seminary in Tacoma, St. Nicholas School and Epiphany Day School in Seattle. In 1967 she married Lewis Wallon. She always felt blessed that she had been able to travel extensively in Europe and to visit Africa, China, Central America and Australia. She is survived by her four children: Richard Buck and Peter Buck, both of Seattle; Barbara Buck of Edmonds; and Deborah Buck of Shoreline; and by three stepchildren: Mary Wallon of Seattle, Lewis Wallon Jr. of Tacoma, and Anne Wallon Grimes of Golden, Colorado. In addition, she is survived by 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. A funeral service is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. July 11 at Epiphany Episcopal Church in Seattle, 1805 38th Ave. Memorial contributions may be made to Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, 2001 East Madison Street, Seattle, WA 98122.