Margaret Blais

Margaret Elizabeth (Latimer) Blais died peacefully at her Melrose home surrounded by family on Wednesday, February 24. She was 93.
Margaret was born on May 19, 1916 in Seattle, Washington to the late Charles F. and Lillian Latimer. She graduated high school from the Seattle public school system and later went on to work for a local importer in San Francisco, California.
While later working as a secretary for a lawyer's office in Oakland, California, she met her future husband, the late Edward Joseph Blais , at a USO dance. After his return from service in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, Margaret and Edward were married.
Margaret moved in 1948 to her husband's hometown of Medford, where she worked as a homemaker and raised the couple's two sons. She and her husband later moved to Wakefield.
Margaret was a fiercely proud and independent woman. Despite going deaf and losing mobility in her later years, she never let her condition prevent her from enjoying her life and family. Always the stubborn and fearless fighter, she on more occasions than not, proved her doctors' and family members' prognoses and worries about her health wrong.
Margaret was also an enormously caring and gentle woman with a clever wit. A volunteer at Malden Hospital and active with the Women's Guild at the Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in Wakefield, her family and friends regularly commented on her hospitality and kindness.
Margaret loved to play cards and was known to mercilessly trump her grandchildren in games of rummy. During the summer months, she enjoyed playing cards while viewing the garden from the backyard patio of her Melrose home. She also enjoyed reading mysteries, dancing, and vacationing at her family's summer cottage in Maine.
As a child, Margaret and her father, who worked for an advertising department at a Seattle newspaper, would attend minor league baseball games near their home. Her passion for the sport continued when she relocated to the East Coast, where she became an avid follower of the Red Sox. She almost never missed tuning into a game, though she sometimes struggled to stay awake through the Red Sox's late night broadcasts from her native West Coast.
Margaret was preceded in death by her husband, Edward, and her sister, Helen Johnstone Russo. She leaves her two sons, Joseph Blais and his wife, Joyce, of Melrose and Francis Blais and his wife, Rosemarie, of Columbus, Ohio; grandchildren Patrick Blais-Lepore and his wife, Angela, of Medford, Peter Blais of Wakefield, Katie Blais of Melrose, Josh Castle and his wife, Jennifer, of Walden, Vermont, and Erica Davidovic and her husband, David, of San Francisco, California. She is also survived by two great grandchildren, Mason and Sawyer Castle, as well as several nieces and nephews.
Her Funeral will be held from the MCDONALD FUNERAL HOME, 19 YALE AVE., WAKEFIELD on Monday at 9am, followed by a Funeral Mass in Most Blessed Sacrament Church, 1155 Main St., Wakefield at 10 o'clock. Relatives and friends may call at the funeral home on Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m. Interment will be in Oak Grove Cemetery, Medford. Contributions in lieu of flowers may be made in her memory to the National Kidney Foundation, 85 Astor Avenue, Suite 2, Norwood, MA 02062, or the American Heart Association, 1 Union Street, #301, Robbinsville, NJ, 08691-4183. Obits/directions/guestbook, www.mcdonalds.com

Read Margaret Blais's Obituary and Guestbook on www.mcdonaldfs.com.

Visitation

McDonald Funeral Home
19 Yale Ave.
Wakefield , MA US 01880
Sunday, February 28, 2010, 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Service

Most Blessed Sacrament Church
1155 Main Street
Wakefield , MA US 01880
Monday, March 1, 2010, 10:00 AM

Cemetery

Oak Grove Cemetery
230 Playstead Rd.
Medford , MA US 02155
Monday, March 1, 2010, 11:30 AM