Margaret Ellen Cardwell

Margaret was born in The Dalles, Oregon to Harold Burges and Esther Daly Burges November 15,

1949. Margaret passed away on March 13, 2024.

Harold was a newspaperman & Esther was the office manager of the paper. The family next moved to Chester, PA, then to Idaho, then to the beloved

Glasgow, MT where Harold became publisher and

Margaret gained a lifelong friend, Valerie Bauch, whom she knew since the 3rd grade. The young family, including her younger brother Bob Burges had moved from place to place opening new or expanding newspapers in emerging communities.

The Burges family was always well-connected to local and state politics, owing to Harold’s duties. This was the source of Margaret’s love of newspapers, love of reading, love of research, and belief that in politics there is always a way to reason and compromise. The family often traveled back to the Burges family cabin (est. 1911) in Green Lake, Spicer, Minnesota for recreation and respite.

The family moved to San Clemente, CA in 1966. Harold’s newspaper was the host newspaper for the western Whitehouse under President Nixon, where the family visited for many press events. Margaret graduated from San Clemente High School then matriculated to the University of San Diego. It was there that she met her future husband, Craig. They married December 19, 1970, in a barrio church in south San Diego. Margaret made her own wedding dress and all the Christmas ornaments on their first tree. They moved to Santa Barbara, CA 2 days later and celebrated their first Christmas in Santa Barbara in 1970. Sarah was born in July 1972. Craig worked for a Memphis-based company in Santa Barbara. Margaret completed her undergraduate degree at UC, Santa Barbara in 1972 while pregnant with Sarah.

In the fall of 1973, the new family moved to Athens, Georgia. Margaret loved her time in Athens, learning to play bridge, camping all over the State of Georgia, making many friends, including friends for life, the Steve & Sara Kuhn family. In 1977, the family moved to Austin, Texas. Abby was born in Austin, May 1977. There, they traveled about, camping often. Margaret returned to college, completing the Masters, Information Science, the University of Texas, Austin, August 1980. For her Masters project in 1980 she envisioned and wrote a search engine catalogue enabling one to organize and find cooking recipes. Margaret then moved to Memphis to reunite her family, Craig, Sarah, and Abby who had moved to Memphis in May 1980 while Margaret remained in Austin to complete her master’s degree.

Margaret immediately set about to seek employment in September 1980, based on her education background. She was rebuffed in over 120 interviews, because she, a woman, possibly taking a man’s job, was catholic and not “born again”, had lots of education and no experience, or because her husband traveled out of town and “who would take care of the children” in some event if the husband was out of town while she needed to work. Not to be deterred, she got a CDL (Commercial Driver’s license) to drive a school bus for a local day care center.

She was employed by Rhodes College (Southwestern), in January 1982 after the three previous employees who were hired ahead of her were fired or left. She walked to work from her midtown home from 1984-1996 at Rhodes as a reference librarian. During this time, she was a brownie and girl scout leader, served with VECA delivering the newsletter, and helped VECA catalogue its homes to be a designated a national historic place by the National Parks Service. She loved Overton Park, visiting its zoo at least twice a week to see the newborns.

In late 1996, the family moved to Decatur, Georgia where Margaret worked for the University of Georgia. The girls were off to college and on their way. Margaret and Craig traveled, golfed, dined, renovated a home, kayaked, and generally had a fine time. Returning to Memphis in 2000, Margaret became the Director of the Library at Christian Brothers University serving under 4 presidents.

Beginning from their time in midtown in 1984, Margaret has always served the nursery and young children in church to make sure that the parents could attend Mass. At St. Peter, she served in a similar role in the Sunday Atrium for children.

As an important academician at Rhodes, Georgia, and Christian Brothers University she helped countless students who walked through the door turn “an inquiry and idea” today, in to a serviceable and passable paper by tomorrow. Margaret, for 12 years, was a national pre-publication book reviewer for college and academic libraries seeking to underwrite books on child life, psychology, and young life changes. Her reviews served to get authors’ works either endorsed for inclusion, or not so.

An athlete, she loved golf and swimming. She was competitive runner for many years until switching to her daily 2–3-mile walks. She doted on her three grandchildren Porter, Sydney, and, and Chloe, making sure that they vacationed with she and Craig every year (no parents allowed!). She was an excellent seamstress having made her wedding dress, then remaking it for her daughters’ first communion, her grandson’s baptism, and a granddaughter’s first communion.

Always generous with her time, she was adored by both family and friends. She served on several boards including The Brooks Museum league and Harbor town. For many years she served as a precinct election official for the Shelby County Election Commission. She dedicated herself to tutoring 2nd & 3rd graders to read both in core City and Catholic schools, was active in ARISE2READ, and taught reading literacy to learning adults through Literacy Mid-south. She enjoyed playing in two bridge clubs. She loved her book club, coordinating its regular get togethers for over 20 years. She is survived by her husband of 53 years, Craig, brother Bob (Bend, Oregon), daughters Sarah Cardwell (Christa), Abigail Cardwell, grandchildren Porter, Sydney, and Chloe, many cousins, nieces, and nephews.

A Mass will be held at St. Peter, 190 Adams Avenue, Memphis, Saturday, March 23, 11am followed by a reception in the Parish Hall. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to ARISE2READ, Literacy Mid-south, or the Plough Library at Christian Brothers University.