Margaret Bell Spalding Rosser
23 June 1921~16 February 2016
After nearly 95 years of a life well lived, Margaret has passed through and moved on.
Margaret and her family are long time Island residents. Margaret’s grandfather, W. A. Spalding, first came to Vashon Island in the 1870s. He coined the name “Cedarhurst” for the little community on the northwest side of Vashon so that the US Post Office (one of 9 at the time) could be established for deliveries by the Mosquito and Virginia fleets to deliver to the residents in that area as a registered address and destination. Margaret’s father’s sister served as one of the first female US Postmasters in Washington state having the mail delivered to their dock and house.
Margaret was born to Mina May Jones Spalding and Hubert Alvin Spalding and grew up on Vashon Island in the Cedarhurst area.
At 12 years of age she and two girlfriends from up the beach rowed, square sailed and camped their way around Vashon-Maury Island. It took three to four days to make the complete circuit.
She attended Vashon Elementary School in the old Vashon school built by the Steen Brothers. In 1912 Margaret graduated Vashon High School with honors, as did her father before her. She went on to attend Seattle Pacific University and worked her way through her university years as a nanny residing in the Queen Anne area.
While at Seattle Pacific University, she met a classmate, Leon A Rosser, whom she later married, and they moved back to Vashon Island. Leon and Margaret were married 27 September, 1940, at the Vashon Presbyterian Church, a church her Grandfather helped establish.
Leon and Margaret bought a 15-acre tract of land from Olaf and Olava Steen, one of the original Steen brothers who were also founding family’s on Vashon. Over the years since taking ownership of the parcels in 1942, Leon and Margaret built two houses, one burning to the ground January, 1946. The home and property is yet in the family name with one of their daughters. Margaret and Leon had nine children, eight of whom lived to adulthood.
Margaret was the first female bus driver on Vashon-Maury Island and worked for the Vashon School District as a bus driver for 17 years. She then went back to school and retained her certification to teach Drivers Education through the Vashon School District and became the district’s first female Drivers Education teacher.
She worked at the Wall Flower, now Herban Bloom, for the Mace family, developing one of the original ear tags for dogs, and served as Vice-President of the PTA for Vashon-Maury Island, she also stood as a Girl Scout & Boy Scout leader, was active in helping folks attain their right to vote, and was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Margaret was a junior choir conductor, a bell ringing maestro, a cook/chef on the Gallant Lady Cruises, and taught English to Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants. She knitted sweaters for those in need, and sewed many quilts for kids. She was an active member in her church, a docent for the Vashon-Maury Heritage Museum and she was engaged in various projects supporting her efforts toward building a better Vashon-Maury Community.
Margaret had a ready smile. Her word was to be easily counted on as her contract and commitment. She was loving, always having room for yet one more to come into her flock. Her home life was ever active with her children and church family. There was ALWAYS activity in and around her home and especially the kitchen. Pulling up yet another chair to the nearly 10 by 4 foot dining room table and squeezing another into the family was never a problem. To leave out others in need was never an option. Though she had little, she always had enough to share with others around her. Both Margaret and Leon had these similar life values so they supported each other in decisions to surround others with love. They lived their beliefs.
Margaret sought and fostered extra children along the way, took in and supported a number of exchange students and often allowed family and friends in need of a place to rest their heads to dwell in her home for whatever time was necessary to help them on their path and way.
Margaret was an extraordinary woman, stepping into many roles in her lifetime that would have been considered only for a man: a “liberated” woman prior to the creation of the title.
She was an avid reader and extremely intelligent woman. She helped provide editing advice in a behind-the-scenes manner by manuscript reading and advising some of our Island writers.
Margaret had a great faith and, greatest of all, lived her faith and belief. She set an example and guideline to those of us who came after her to step up and follow should we so choose.
She accomplished her kindnesses with grace and ease. One of her mottos was, “you can get more bees with honey than with vinegar,” and another: “you will know them by the result of their actions, not necessarily their words.”
Margaret is preceeded in death by her husband, Leon Albert, daughters Terri Sue, Mary Joann, Nancy Lou and son “Skip” Hubert Leavy.
She is survived by her brother Glenn Spalding and her sister Donna Spauding Douglass, five of her children: daughters, Leona May, Marna Dee (husband Andrew Woody), Dorothy Bell (husband Walter Wamsley), Gay, and son Thomas Spalding (wife Debra Garcia), 18 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren and counting…one more soon to be born in March 2016, numerous nieces and nephews, greats, grands and great-greats and, though each vastly precious and important, too numerous to individually name here-in.
She will be greatly missed by the many friends and family she attracted and gathered around her.
A Memorial will be held Saturday, 27 February, 2016, at the Vashon Methodist Church at 2 PM.
Please visit our online guest book at Island Funeral Service: www.islandfuneral.com
Memorial contributions are requested to be made to the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum, Vashon Methodist Church, Vashon Senior Center, Vashon Community Care, Vashon Food Bank or Vashon-Maury Youth and Family Services
