Margaret Ragsdale

Mrs. Ragsdale was head bookkeeper for the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, State Historical Society and the Masonic Grand Lodge. She retired as proofreader and engrosser for the State Revisor of Statutes.

During two years in Japan Mrs. Ragsdale served as president of the Navy Officers Wives Club, made and sold oil paintings, graduated from courses in Chinese cookery and Japanese flower arranging and climbed to the top of Mt. Fuji. She also lived in Hawaii and Maryland.

Mrs. Ragsdale received state and regional prizes, including a best of show, for her needlework, and judged needlework shows. The stole she embroidered for Ramona Carlin on request of the Kansas Wildflower Society is in the museum of the Kansas State Historical Society, and she designed needlepoint for dining room chairs at the governor's residence. She also designed and made eight sets of paraments for the chapel at First United Methodist Church.

Mrs. Ragsdale, who has had articles published by national periodicals, wrote a two volume Tillotson genealogy which was awarded the 1999 grand prize by the Connecticut Society of Genealogists. Her coloring book, Wildflowers in Kansas, was published by the Kansas Wildflower Society, and First United Methodist Church published her booklets on the stained glass windows and chapel paraments.

A charter of the Shawnee Gem and Mineral Society for which she was first secretary, Kansas Wildflower Society for which she was a long-time board member, and the Topeka Needlework Guild of which she was president, Mrs. Ragsdale was a life member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, Native Sons and Daughters and the State Historical Society. She was a 54 year member of First United Methodist Church which she served in various capacities from junior choir to lay preacher. A member of the National League of Pen Women in both art and letters, Mrs. Ragsdale was its local and state president. She belonged to The National Society of Colonial Dames and for seven years represented Kansas on the board of Dumbarton House, Society headquarters and accredited Federal museum house in Washington, D.C.

Recognized by the Kaw Valley Council for her work in Girl Scouts, Mrs. Ragsdale has served on the board of the Topeka Art Guild and belonged to Daughters of the American Revolution, Topeka Pan-Hellenic Council and Nonoso.

Survivors include her husband, Herbert W. Ragsdale, whom she married in Topeka on Sept. 2, 1955; children Charles Ragsdale, San Diego, CA; Alexandra and Richard Chappell, Edgewater, Maryland; and Elizabeth Ensley, Topeka; grandchildren Laura Chappell, Jessica Ensley and Daniel Ensley; nephews and niece Douglas, John and Barbara Richmond; and grandnephew Eric Richmond.

A funeral service will be at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday March 30, in Klasse Chapel at First United Methodist Church. Burial will be in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Mrs. Ragsdale will lie in state after 3:00 p.m. Tuesday at Penwell-Gabel Mid Town Chapel, where the family will receive friends from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Suggested memorial contributions may be made to First United Methodist Church, 600 SW Topeka Boulevard, Topeka, 66603 or Dumbarton House, Fund for the Future, 2715 Que Street NW, Washington, DC 20007-3071.

To leave a special message for the family online, please visit www.penwellgabel.com.