Margaret Moss Hodnett died peacefully in her home on April 20, 2011 after injuries sustained from a fall a few weeks earlier. Margaret was 87 years old. She was born and raised in Hickory, NC, where her family owned a construction company. She graduated from The University of NC, Greensboro, where she studied English. Her first job was at the Tennessee Valley Authority making maps for the artillery in World War II. She met her husband, Tom, at NC State University—she worked in the registration office and he was a student in chemical engineering.

Margaret focused on her role as wife and mother until her daughter, Sarah Hodnett Hacker, left for college. Looking to the next stage in her life, she discovered her love of art and attended community college to receive more formal training. She joined an active art center near her home in New Jersey, where she began sculpture lessons, joined a group of women sculptors, and ran a studio and gallery for stone carving. Being near New York City allowed her to study with a well known sculptor at the New School and to see all the major art shows. A high point of her life was the opportunity to spend two summers in Italy, where she learned to use pneumatic machinery allowing her to carve marble and other hard stones. By the end of her life, Margaret made over 70 sculptures, selling many of them through galleries and art auctions.

Margaret moved to Vashon Island in 1988. She and her husband built their dream home on the south end, where they were well known for their love of gardening and entertaining. Their life was punctuated by the death of their daughter and son-in-law, Richard Hacker, in a plane crash in 1992. Margaret received support from the community and gave back through her sculpture—she was a regular contributor to the Blue Heron Art Auction on Vashon Island. She and Tom enjoyed playing golf at the Vashon Golf and Country Club. In the last years of her life, Margaret lived at Horizon House, Seattle, where she actively participated in the art committee and had many close friends.

Margaret will be greatly missed by her family and friends. We will miss her excitement for art, her chocolate decadent cake, her interest in the well-being of others, and her kind, gracious, and poised manner. Margaret is survived by her step grandchildren, Sally Hacker of Corvallis and Jenny Hacker of San Francisco, her brother and sister, Charles Moss and Sarah Clark of North Carolina, and her close friends, Mary Van Gemert, Donna Klemka, and Kari Dickerson of Vashon Island.

A memorial gathering was held at the Vashon United Methodist Church on April 30, 2011.

She was buried next to her husband and daughter and son-in-law at the Vashon Island Cemetery.

Remembrances may be made to Vashon Island Allied Arts.

Paid Obituary.