Margaret Ellen Eckenrode (Simmons) | ||||||
Margaret Ellen (Margie) was born Columbus, Ohio August 29, 1933. She was named for Ellen Benedict, a cousin of her mother's. It was a steamy, humid
August when she was born and Dorothy had contracted Athlete's Foot in the hospital. She could hardly walk and was pretty miserable for a time in that stuffy upstairs
bedroom where she was confined in the rental house. Rhoda was seven, Carol was 6 and Jack was 5 that summer. They were good children
and they tried to help their mother was much as they could.
Shortly, after Margaret's birth, her father Ralph was transferred to Springfield, Ohio. The Benedicts attended the Disciple Church in Springfield where the Simmons' joined as well. Ellen and Orville Benedict were exceedingly kind to this young family and they spent many pleasant Sundays with them and their two sons on their wonderful farm on the outskirts of Springfield. Margaret was a happy, beautiful baby who was adored by all. Margie didn't walk until she was almost two, probably because she was carried every where by her siblings. One Sunday afternoon, Ralph decided that he was going to teach her to walk. He was an agent for National Life which was an industrial insurance company who sold life insurance to poor people who paid the premiums by the week. He had a big, long change purse that contained all the change he had collected that week which he would turn in on Monday. He sat on the floor at one end of the room and Dorothy held Margie at the other end with a dish towel tied around her waist and under her arms. He would pour all that change out on the floor, Margie would try to get to it being held up by Dorothy as she made her way to the prize. Then her dad would move with the purse full of change to the other end of the room and she would have to try to get to it there. By the end of the day, Margie was walking, but she thought she had to have the dish towel tied around her waist to hold her up. She walked around the house for several days with the dish towel trailing behind her. | ||||||
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