SBABO, MARGARET

Margaret Laydon Sbabo, 87, loving wife of 63 years to Donald Sbabo, passed away March 17, 2020 due to congestive heart failure in Ft. Myers, FL. Born in New Haven, April 19, 1932 to Ethel Tilton and Thomas Laydon. Margaret was very proud to call herself a North Haven native, living there for 85 years. After attending Hillhouse High School, Margaret, otherwise known as “Midge”, attended Skidmore College earning a BA in Psychology and minoring in Child Development. She made lifelong friends there and returned every few years for reunions. After College, Margaret started her professional career as a first-grade teacher at Center School in North Haven. Margaret met Don, and after many a night commiserating over beers at The Cape Codder and other such venues, they were married on August 18, 1956. Thereafter, Margaret took a 12-year hiatus from teaching to be home with their growing family. In 1969, Margaret returned to education as a substitute teacher at Green Acres Elementary School. Within a few years, she was teaching Mathematics full time at Orchard Hill Junior High School. She moved to North Haven High School where she finished her career teaching Algebra and Geometry. During her teaching career, she was active in the North Haven Education Association, taught religion for 15 years for Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, and was a Girl Scout Leader for 12 years at Green Acres Elementary. Margaret and Don enjoyed a robust social circle involving several close couples. When the kids started showing up, the couples refused to back down on their social life together, which resulted in an extended ‘pseudo’ family of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews. Every weekend, there was a gathering that rotated from family to family, house to house. The group adopted RV camping as a way to affordably travel in a group, keep the party going, and expose their kids to the museums and monuments of DC, the beaches of Cape Cod and the Carolinas, the incessant rain of Quebec, and many other destinations. In 1992, Margaret left teaching and joined Don in retirement. They would spend the winter months at their second home at Lake Fairways in North Ft Myers, FL. They quickly became integrated in a close-knit group of fellow Snowbirds from the Midwest, Northeast, and Canada. Although dispositioned to motion sickness, Margaret easily adjusted to the relatively calm Southwest FL waters where they cruised to local beaches and restaurants on their boat “Endless Summer”. Every year, without fail, Margaret made sure that all of her grandchildren had an opportunity to visit, galivanting around the park in the golf cart, swimming in the pool, and cruising around on the boat. Margaret absolutely loved her eclectic Snowbird friends, and hosted many happy hours, and yearly Super Bowl parties. Don and Midge enjoyed additional travel around the country, and several Caribbean cruises. During the summers, Margaret organized several weeklong getaways for the family, including renting a house on Cape Hatteras, and more recently a house in Narragansett, RI, for the week including their 60th wedding anniversary. The anniversary celebration week was the hottest week of the year, in a un-airconditioned house, with 21 family members spanning 4 generations. With all the chaos that brought, Margaret was in her glory, surrounded by the family that she and Don created. It was the last time she swam in the Atlantic.

Margaret was a voracious reader. She liked to fight confounding crossword puzzles. As a builder’s daughter, she would unexpectedly educate whoever was close by about the subtle nuances of residential architecture. She would sew dresses for herself and daughters and created amazing Halloween costumes for all the kids. She was a fun loving, innovative cook and host, although she unashamedly couldn’t hold a tune. She was small in stature but had a Yodaesque, honey badger, formidable presence. People listened to her. She was a fierce advocate for womens’ rights, truly ahead of her time. She was a loyal supporter of UConn basketball, especially the women’s program. She was a grammar policewoman, but a self-avowed lousy speller. She suntanned incredibly dark for a woman who claimed Irish descent. She liked her houses to be yellow with green shutters. In addition to her husband, Donald Sbabo, she is survived by her brother Thomas Laydon (Lorraine) of Wallingford, her four children Cheryl Sbabo Calabrese (Michael) of Clinton, Thomas Sbabo (Holly) of Hamden, Donald Sbabo Jr. (Lorraine) of North Haven, and Lisa Bryson (Gary) of North Haven. She had eight grandchildren and two great-grandsons, and 8 nieces and nephews, and a score of extended family that called her Aunt Margaret.

Arrangements have been entrusted to The Havens Family, North Haven Funeral Home, 36 Washington Avenue and will be scheduled in late Spring when it is safe for her family and friends to gather and celebrate this woman who meant so much to so many. Please look for a notice of date and time in the New Haven Register and on the North Haven Funeral Home website. Donations in her memory can be made to The Margaret Laydon Sbabo Memorial Scholarship. Please make checks payable to NHHS Scholarship Account, c/o Nancy Parkos, North Haven High School, 221 Elm Street, North Haven, CT 06473. Please write MLSbabo in the memo section of check.