Margaret Horton Edsall
Former Capital columnist, known for ‘Away We Go,’ worked tirelessly to report social, cultural goings-on across region
Margaret Horton Edsall, who for years wrote a column in The Capital on cultural events and travel called “Away We Go,” has died.
She died suddenly at her Edgewater home Wednesday night, her family said. The cause of death was unknown. She was 75 years old.
Edsall started writing for the paper in 1978, taking her keen interest in cultural events, museums and travel and turning them into the weekly column “Away We Go.” She also did other freelance pieces for The Capital and its sister publications, the last appearing in 2014.
She worked tirelessly to report social and cultural goings-on, casting a wide net not only in Annapolis and environs but throughout the region.
“Peggy, that’s what we all called her, walked in one day with that big smile, sat down and pitched a story about day trips for families. Places within a day’s drive, I think she took her kids along,” said retired editor Tom Marquardt. He said they found the art of a station wagon with balloons tied to it to use for the column, “Away We Go.”
“It ran for at least a decade, then she also filled in where we needed her. She chased down property sold information, she filled in on social events, she may even have done restaurant reviews,” he said.
“She had a great personality and ability to interview people. She just loved what she did.”
Marquardt said he got to know her husband, Douglas, because he saw him every week. “Peggy would type up her column, and this was before the internet so she couldn’t email it, then she had Doug deliver the copy to the office,” he said.
She’d steer people to the Philadelphia Flower Show, Winterthur Museum in Delaware, Virginia’s Mount Vernon or Montpelier, and galleries too numerous to mention.
“They were day trips anyone could do. Always interesting. She was a good writer who really kept readers informed about our region,” said Mary Felter, a retired Capital staffer who led the Community News section.
Aside from her work at The Capital, she wrote pieces for The Washington Times, Baltimore magazine, the Maryland Office of Tourism, airline travel magazines and websites. She also wrote a book “A Place Called the Yard: A Guide to the U.S. Naval Academy,” published in 1980.
She knew the Naval Academy well. After all, she and her husband, Douglas Edsall, moved to Annapolis when he took a job teaching geology at the academy in1969 and she was very involved in academy social life.
She served as president of the Naval Academy Garden Club at one point because of her keen interest in gardening.
“She always wanted the perfect English garden,” said Elizabeth Edsall Krumm, her daughter.
Edsall was also an active member of the Naval Academy Women’s Club and the Society of American Travel Writers.
She was also active in charitable work, especially Benevolent Baskets, an organization that teaches life and job skills to women, many working their way back from being homeless, by having them work to operate a gift basket business.
Margaret Horton Edsall was born on June 10, 1944, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She spent the majority of her childhood living in Westfield, NewJersey, and graduated from Westfield High School. She later attended The American University, where she met her future husband in a geology class. The two were married in 1963, and the young couple moved to Annapolis and started a family in 1967.
Edsall is survived by her husband; three children, sons Douglas Jr., of Florida, and Christopher, of Virginia, and daughter, Elizabeth, of Maryland; and five grandchildren.
A celebration of life will be held Sunday, Nov. 24, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Taylor Funeral Home, 147 Duke of Gloucester St.
The family asks that contributions be made to Howard County General Hospital, www.hcgh.org/give or Benevolent Baskets www.benevolentbaskets.org.