Margaret Lowery

November 1927 - September 2022

Margaret Lowery, passed peacefully at her residence at Friends House in Santa Rosa, CA this month.

She was a graduate of UC Berkeley, where she received a BA in economics. There she met her husband and together they started a family. She is survived by 5 children, 11 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren.

She was a lifetime member of Mensa as well as Intel. She belonged to a Quilters Guild and People’s Educational Organization (PEO), wherever she lived. After raising her children, she went back to school to earn a teaching credential. She was an innovative elementary school teacher, and worked with children in Pico Rivera, a city southeast of downtown Los Angeles. She took her children to Guadalajara for a summer so that she could improve her Spanish and talk to the parents of her students, She was an active member of the Bridge and Bay Garden Club as well as a Friend of the Library. While living in Coronado, CA, she also enjoyed participating at Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church and the Coronado Yacht Club.

Margaret will be remembered most as a staunch supporter of human rights and her unyielding integrity. In 2004 she wrote and self-published the book 39 Months at Tule Lake, which recounted her father’s work as a property administrator at Tule Lake Camp, a relocation camp for people of Japanese ancestry built in 1943. He was deeply troubled by the injustice of these camps and chose to work there in order to be of service.

Margaret Lowery moved to Friends House and attended Meeting for Worship at Friends House Worship Group.

She became a member of Redwood Forest Friends Meeting after moving to Friends House near the end of her life. She wrote in her application for membership: “I was a member of a Congregational Church (Church of Christ) in Los Angeles which was possibly the closest thing to being a Quaker …for a non-Quaker. I was asked to leave that church when they pushed out three or four of the ministers along with those of us who supported their strong support for women’s right to abortion.” When she began reading books to Marie Schutz, she learned about the testimonies known as SPICES. She wrote: “In all the work I had done in previous churches and Sunday Schools, no one ever mentioned integrity.”

She was an avid reader to the end and will always be remembered for her generosity and grace.