Obituary

Margaret Hammons Fitzpatrick passed away on Saturday, October 12, 2024. Her loved ones take comfort in knowing that that she passed away surrounded by her family who loved her.

Born on November 3, 1924, in Malden, West Virginia, to John Hammons and Lilly Mayflower Hammons (née Rose), Margaret grew up in a loving household with her parents, brother John Augustus, and sister Diana. She lived on Georges Creek during the Depression.

In her teens, Margaret moved to live with her aunt and uncle, Beaty and Les Avis, and their daughter, Mary Margaret, in Charleston, West Virginia, where there were better schools and job opportunities. She graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School in January 1942 where she was class secretary and a member of The Jacksonian yearbook staff. Her siblings John Augustus and Diana, who were 7 and 13 years younger than her, joined the household when their father was away in the Navy and their mother was ill and unable to care for them. During World War II, she volunteered at the USO and entertained troops convalescing at The Greenbrier resort.

Margaret was a pioneer in women working outside of the home. Margaret had an adventurous personality and began working for the telephone company after graduating high school at the start of World War II. She soon became a lab technician for Union Carbide. She worked with chemists on Blaine Island in South Charleston developing chemical processes for production of vital raw materials. Her dad and her brother both were in the Navy and away for much of the war. Margaret loved working on the Island and would continue after the war until she was pregnant with her first child in 1955.

One reason Margaret loved working at Carbide was she met the love of her life there: John Thomas Fitzpatrick (Tom). He was a Ph.D. chemist from Salt Lake City who helped develop SEVIN, the first bio-degradable pesticide, and earned a number of patents. She and Tom were a true love match and inseparable. She often said how lucky she felt that they had found each other.

Margaret and Tom were married in 1954. They found a home in the South Hills section of Charleston and had two children in quick succession, J F Fitzpatrick and Mary Elizabeth Fitzpatrick.

Margaret then became a stay-at-home mom, raising their children, and making a warm and inviting home. While she didn’t complete college due to the need to work, she had a life-long love of learning that she passed along to her children. She was a member of St Matthews Episcopal Church in Charleston and a long-time member of the Altar Guild. She was an award-winning gardener who produced beautiful roses (often aided by her children).

She was very close to her many relatives and friends in the Charleston area and in particular, her best friend and cousin, Julia Jacobs. She was involved in the lives of her siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins and always striving to help them.

Margaret cared tirelessly for her beloved husband Tom when he had a long-term illness that eventually resulted in the loss of his right leg. They still travelled with their children and their grandchildren. She was devastated when he died in 1998.

After Tom, her parents, and aunts and uncles had died, Margaret moved to Alexandria, Virginia, in 2005 to live across a cul-de-sac from her daughter Mary. She often called moving to Alexandria to be close to her family one of the best decisions of her life. She remained vibrant and active until almost the very end of her life. She told many funny and illustrative stories and always had a twinkle in her eye.

She was delighted to be so close to Mary’s children, Laura Rose Sullivan and Joseph Anthony Sullivan, and to be able to see so much of their lives. Laura was named in part after Margaret’s mother’s family. She loved going on family vacations with all of her children and grandchildren to places like Bermuda, Ireland, and Spain.

Although J F’s family lived in New York, Margaret created loving memories and traditions with her New York grandchildren, John Thomas Fitzpatrick, Lucy Margaret Fitzpatrick and Eleanor Jean Fitzpatrick, that will last all their lives. She kept bedrooms for them in her house to welcome them when they visited. Lucy was named in part after Margaret.

Margaret had a wonderful way of reaching and connecting with people wherever she was. She made many new friends in Alexandria among her neighbors and her daughter’s and grandchildren’s friends. People in New York who might see her only once a year would ask when she was coming up for her next visit because they enjoyed her company so much. Her warmth, grace, and her unfailing devotion to her family made a lasting impact on the people around her. Her children and grandchildren try very hard to live up to her example.

Margaret was predeceased by her beloved husband Tom, her parents, John and Lilly Hammons, her aunts and uncles, and her brother John Augustus Hammons. Margaret is survived by her children, J F and Mary, their spouses Dale Cendali and Marty Sullivan, respectively, her grandchildren, Joseph’s fiancée Ashley Stumvoll, her dear sister, Diana Rosenbaum, and her nephews and nieces, all of whom she loved so much.

A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 19, 2024, at Barlow Bonsall Funeral Home, 1118 Virginia Street East, Charleston, West Virginia. The Reverend Kim Webster of St. Matthews Episcopal Church will officiate. Burial will immediately follow at Spring Hill Cemetery, Charleston, West Virginia.

The viewing will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the funeral home.

There will be a remembrance service for Margaret in Alexandria, Virginia, on her 100th birthday, November 3, 2024, for all of the people whose lives she touched with grace, love, and happiness but were not able to attend the funeral. Her children remember her saying that she wanted to live to be 100 years old all their lives. She came very, very close.

Cards, stories and photos are very much appreciated.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Margaret’s name to American Heart Association at https://www.heart.org.

Condolences may be sent to Margaret’s family at www.barlowbonsall.com.

Barlow Bonsall Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements.