Margaret Jean (Pippitt) Drake Obituary (2007)

Margaret Pippitt Drake, 70, recently of Williamsburg, Virginia, passed away on November 23, 2007 in Smithville, Missouri surrounded and comforted by the love of her family. A memorial service is planned for 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 8, 2007, at the First Christian Church, 201 N. Bridge St., Smithville, Missouri. A reception for the family in her hometown of Glenwood, Iowa, will follow later the same day at 4:30 p.m. in the Christian Church Fellowship Hall, 202 N. Vine St. Margaret will be interred in the Glenwood cemetery beside her mother and father, aunts and uncles, and grandson. A second memorial service is planned for January 12th at 4 p.m. in the Wren Chapel of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Margaret was born to Leslie Robert Pippitt and Evelyn Gertrude Buffington on a farm in Glenwood, Iowa on January 21, 1937. In 1955, after graduating high school, she left Iowa to work for the Red Cross in Chicago and then Washington, D.C. In 1959, she married William Baker Drake, also formerly of Glenwood, Iowa, following his graduation from the Naval Academy. In the following thirty years, Margaret raised four sons, lived in many different homes in Maine, Virginia, California, Connecticut, and touched thousands of lives in all those places with her wit, her wisdom, and her enduring practicality. After a divorce in the 90's, she moved to Williamsburg, Virginia, and worked in the office of the provost of the College of William and Mary for many years as administrative assistant. She had been a member of the First Federated Parish Church of South Berwick, Maine, for many years and formed life-long friendships there. She was an active Sister in P.E.O., working tirelessly in the cause of giving scholarships to deserving young women, and was active in politics, volunteering on several campaigns. Throughout her life, she traveled and saw much of the world. Recent years had seen her traveling frequently to visit her family and friends across the country, sometimes by air, but often in her car with the navigation system that "talks to me". Margaret is survived by her son, William Baker Drake and his wife, Rachel Winn Drake, of Smithville, MO; son, Charles Buffington Drake and his wife, Sally Russell Drake, of Carmel Valley, CA; son, Robert Bacon Drake and his wife Tatiana Zaurovna Drake, of Pacific Grove, CA; son, John Edwin Drake and his wife Elizabeth Cary Drake, of York, ME; her sister and brother-in-law, Marilyn Pippitt Davis and Stan Davis, of Des Moines, IA; her brother and sister-in-law, Charles Robert Pippitt and Deloma Hunt Pippitt, of Littleton, CO; and her six grandchildren; William Drake, Daniel Orlov, Alexander Drake, Emma Drake, Lucy Drake, and Cary Drake. She joins her parents and her beloved grandson, Henry Grant Drake in eternity. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Margaret Drake Scholarship Fund c/o John Drake, 95 Fall Mill Rd., York, ME, 03909. The family intends to establish a scholarship fund for young women in Margaret's name so that this cause, in which she so passionately engaged, will continue.