Margery Lauren Wilson

Margery Lauren Wilson was born on January 12, 1951, in Oxnard, California. She was the daughter of Loren George and Mary Samuelson Wilson. She spent her early years in Port Hueneme, and then moved with her family to Santa Barbara, California, and graduated from Santa Barbara High School.

From her earliest years she showed an unusual talent for writing. Her skillfully written and engaging descriptions of people, places, and events made her letters eagerly anticipated by all her correspondents. At age thirteen, and throughout high school, she had a regular column in the Santa Barbara News Press reviewing new recordings of popular music, including rock and folk genres.

Margery had a lifelong love of animals of all kinds. She always had dogs and cats, and at various times she had horses, goats, chickens and rescued birds. Perhaps her most unusual pet was her rescued bat, Belfry, who lived with her in Cambridge several years.

Margery's gregarious and outgoing nature and her love of travel allowed her to make new friends throughout the world. She went solo camping in Alaska and camped with a young daughter in Switzerland and Germany. One of her triumphs in travel planning involved a month long December trip with her sister to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, and Russia, using planes, trains, and ferries and staying at hostels and home shares, using a hotel only in Russia. Wherever she went she made new friends, initiating conversations with cab drivers, hoteliers, grocery clerks, and fellow travelers.

When Margery arrived in Cambridge, she began work as an editor at Winthrop Publishing. She later began a thirty-four year career at MIT, finishing at MIT Medical, where she provided comfort and friendship to countless young students who were far from their homes. While there she also became a board certified lactation consultant and helped many new mothers.

After retirement she became interested in genealogy research and helped numerous families in this pursuit. Still later she became interested in foreign films and began submitting independent and foreign films for consideration in film festivals throughout the United States. She then taught herself to do translating and subtitling for films from France, Spain, Portugal, and Iran. This vocation led her to new friendships in many countries, and she was fortunate to be able to visit with some of those filmmakers in their own countries.

As her mobility declined and she was more confined to her home in Cambridge, she found joy in her online friendships with new people and with friends from her youth and in continuing her work with films and genealogy.

Margery passed away on the morning of September 20, 2024, in Boston, Massachusetts. She was preceded in death by her parents an elder brother, William Besson. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law Johanna and Gareth Coggan of Florida, her daughter and granddaughter Susan and Audrey Bonner of Maine, and her sister Susan Besson Moreland of California.

Margery will be laid to rest with her great grandmother, Mary Gertrude Austin Burgess, in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

With her passing, the world has lost a bright and cheerful light to all who were fortunate to cross her path.