Margaret Louise Heald

Margaret Louise Simmons was born in the small southeastern Iowa town of Bonaparte on September 6, 1932 the fourth of five daughters of George and Dorothy Simmons. She spent her young life in that community and then like her sisters went off to college first to the State University of Iowa in Iowa City and then to Iowa State College in Ames.

On December 12, 1953 Margaret married Glenn E. Heald. In December 1957 she earned a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics Journalism from ISC. After Glenn also graduated from ISC with a Bachelor of Scence in Agricultural Engineering in March 1958 they moved to the Chicago suburbs where Glenn began working for International Harvester.

Margaret began raising their family. They had three daughters and also one son Todd Leslie who died in infancy. In 1967 the family of five moved to Dubuque, Iowa where Glenn began his career as an engineer at John Deere. The family remained in Dubuque for 20 years. In that time Margaret returned to graduate school and earned a Master of Arts in Elementary Education from Clark College in 1977.

She became an elementary school teacher and taught in the Dubuque Community School District at Irving and Table Mound schools for 10 years. In 1986 Glenn retired from John Deere in Dubuque and later that year began a new engineering career at Howard Price Turf Equipment in Chesterfield Missouri. A year later Margaret left her teaching job and moved from Dubuque. In 1987 after a short stay in the suburbs of St. Louis Margaret and Glenn bought a 347 acre farm in central Missouri near Auxvasse and have since started an Angus cow/calf operation which they named Angus Works.

Margaret also continues to substitute teach in the schools of nearby communities and participates in church activities. We honor our mother Margaret with this tribute in the Plaza of Heroines because she has done and continues to do some remarkable things: * She raised three responsible children. * She has been a devoted loving wife for more than 40 years. * She taught elementary school for 10 years and continues to contribute as a substitute teacher in her community. * She and our father have made a dream Angus Works come true at an age when most people do not take on new ventures. Margaret Louise Heald is truly a woman who is admired and someone whose achievements and qualities we hope to emulate. She has packed a lot of living into a few decades and is an inspiration to her family and friends.

Submitted by Margaret Louise Held's daughters and their families: Laura and Patrick Schwartz, Amanda Phylicia and Zachary- New Vienna, Iowa Jennifer and Michael Gaumnitz, Grace Lenexa -Kansas, Annette and John Walter -Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

1994