PAYNE, Margaret Sarah

Margaret (nee Slipp) passed away peacefully at Niagara Falls Hospital on May 29 after a short illness. She was surrounded by her husband Allan and four daughters, Susan, Mary Ellen, Elizabeth and Carol. Margaret was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, teacher and musician who has long been active in the St. Paul’s Anglican Church community in Fort Erie, where she sang in the choir and was active in the ACW. She was born in Trochu, Alberta where she played tennis, skied in the coulees, curled, and hiked in the Rockies. She studied music at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Toronto Conservatory of Music. She taught school for decades, starting at 17 in charge of a one-room school house during the Second World War. She taught Grade 3 to many in Fort Erie. Allan and Margaret were married for 64 years and had an adventurous life, moving frequently across the country and, in later years, around the world, with postings in Indonesia and Venezuela where they approached life with curiosity and enthusiasm. They have always embraced an active life and are familiar figures riding their bikes along the Niagara Parkway. Margaret will be sadly missed by her family and many friends, especially by Allan, Susan (Larry Backer), Mary Ellen, Elizabeth (Ian MacLeod), and Carol (John Collins) and her grandchildren, who idolized her (and loved her chocolate chip cookies): Ian, Graham, Charlotte, Grace, Christopher, Meg and Alice. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, June 4, at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Fort Erie. In lieu of flowers, donations to the St. Paul’s Anglican Church Memorial Fund for Music.