Margaret Elizabeth Gragg

Margaret Elizabeth Thompson Gragg died February 15, 2021, at the age of 93 at The Fountains of Canterbury Memory Care in Oklahoma City. She was born November 5, 1927, in Rogers, NM, and graduated from high school there. Her parents were Annie Lois (Littlejohn) Thompson and Jasper J. Thompson. She had one sister, Louise Thompson Horne. After high school, she moved from New Mexico to Hartshorne, OK, with her parents, where her father raised cattle in Blue Valley. While riding her horse from the farmhouse across Blue Creek to collect the family's mail every day, she caught the eye of George Calvin Gragg, who was staying with family after discharge from the U.S. Navy. Her family later returned to New Mexico, where Margaret and Calvin were married on November 11, 1947.They were living in Gilroy, CA, in 1948 when their first child, Donna Louise Gragg, was born. The family soon moved back to Hartshorne, OK, while she was a baby. Other children are Johnie Calvin Gragg, born in Norman in 1950, and Fred Michael Gragg, born in McAlester in 1953. Margaret devoted her life to home and family. Life as a farm wife suited her, though she was very proud of her husband's success as a pharmacist and founder of Cal Drug in Hartshorne. She always was more than an equal partner in the huge gardens they planted every summer. She was a member of First Baptist Church of Hartshorne, serving in various areas including Sunday School and Bible School teacher and member of the choir and Women's Missionary Union. She was an active member of Twin Cities Garden Club and United Daughters of the Confederacy. Always an avid reader, she also enjoyed needlework, sewing and crafts. She and her husband always put family first, and in later years, they made time for a shared passion for genealogy. They devoted many hours to research on the Gragg, Barnes, Thompson and Littlejohn family lines, including notable trips to sites in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri and Tennessee. Her husband always gave her credit for being the expert on family history on both sides. She is survived by her children and their spouses, Donna and Eugene Steinberg of Oklahoma City; Johnie and Donna Elaine Gragg of El Dorado, KS, and Fred and Connie Gragg of Humble, TX. Grandchildren and spouses are Julianne (Gragg) and Greg Dunn, Edmond, OK; Melynda (Gragg) and Mark Wint, recently returned to Southern Baptist mission work in Africa; Brady and Krista Gragg, Whitewater, KS, and Elizabeth Steinberg and Nicholas Thomson of San Francisco, CA, and Susannah Steinberg and Jeffrey Ghere of Los Angeles, CA. Great-grandchildren are the Dunn children, Hope, Ruth Anne, Jonathan, Elliot, Leila, Delilah and Justus, of Edmond, OK; Madylanne, Matthew and Micah Wint, Africa; Rachel and Calvin Gragg of Whitewater, KS, and Cora Thomson of San Francisco. She also became "Grandma Gragg" to Kerri and Ryan Smith, Bailey and Colton, of El Dorado, KS, and Kevin and Nicole Frech, Hunter and Miranda, of Burns Flat, OK, and Shannon Pfeiffer, Kylee and Trey, Humble, TX, and Connie Gragg's late daughter, Laura. Surviving children of her sister are Linda Alexander, Bill, Nicholas and Jeffrey Horne. A Celebration of Life is being planned to honor Margaret and her husband, Calvin, who died shortly before her on January 28, 2021, after 73 years of marriage.