Margaret Miller Townsend

Margaret Miller "Peg" Townsend, 94, of Washington Pennsylvania, died Saturday, September 12, 2009, in the Washington Hospital.

She was born December 20,1914 in the upstairs living quarters of the telegraph office of the Union Pacific Railroad in Cisco, California where her father Earl was the telegrapher. Located in the remote High Sierra Mountains of Northern California, near Dormer Pass, at an elevation of over 5,000 feet, Cisco is the highest point of America's first transcontinental railroad.

With the looming outbreak of World War I, her parents Albert Earl and Amy Grannis Miller moved their young family east to be near his parents at the Miller family homestead near Avella, Pa. – Bancroft Farm. They had three children at that time, Margaret, Louis Albert Miller, and Delvin Glenn Miller, Earl Miller died in the flu epidemic of 1918 before their fourth child, Orrin Guy Miller, was born,

Her brothers, Albert and Delvin Miller, founded and developed Meadowcroft Village, and Delvin founded The Meadows in 1963. The youngest child, Orrin, died July 27, 1944 when his B-24 bomber was shot down over Hungary.

Mrs. Townsend was a 1933 graduate of Hickory High School, in Hickory, Pennsylvania, and a 1937 graduate of The College Of Wooster in Ohio, where she met her husband, Albert M. Townsend of Marietta, Ohio. Al Townsend was the son of the late Dr. & Mrs. Edwin B. Townsend of Marietta. Dr. Townsend was a long time pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Marietta. Margaret Miller and Albert Townsend married December 18,1936. Her husband died May 26,1998. The Townsends lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Shreveport, Louisiana, Sandusky and Marietta Ohio, Williamstown, West Virginia, Somerville, New Jersey, Washington, Pennsylvania and Sun City Center, Florida. Mrs. Townsend was a homemaker and while living in Somerville. New Jersey, a kindergarten teacher She made friends easily and will be remembered for her kind, loving nature and her wonderful sense on humor.

Surviving are two sons, John Albert Townsend of Washington, Pennsylvania, and Alden Miller Townsend of Crofton, Maryland; six grandchildren, William Miller Townsend, Kelly Townsend Rostic, Jeffrey B, Townsend, David A- Townsend, Kristin Townsend, Megan Townsend Bennett, and nine great grandchildren.

She is also survived by three beloved daughters-in-law – Jackie Mayer Townsend, Janice Downes Bariski, and Anne Bushfield Townsend; her mother's soon to be 100-year-old sister, Reta Grannis Greene of San Bernardino, California, and a cousin, John Anderson of Highlands, North Carolina.

Deceased is her youngest son, Timothy Townsend who died February 10, 1977, the husband of Janice Dowries Bariski, and father of Kristin and Megan, her three brothers, Albert; Delvin and Orrin Miller, and her sister in law, Mrs. Delvin "Mary Lib" Miller.  

There will be a public graveside service at the Riverview Cemetery, Williamstown, WV, on Saturday, September 26 at 11:00 AM. McClure-Schafer-Lankford Funeral Home is assisting the family.  Messages of sympathy may be sent at www.mslfuneralhome.com

Memorial contributions may be made to Presbyterian Senior Care Benevolent Fund, 880 South Main Street, Washington, Pa, 15301