Ms Margaret Ramona Carroll

August 15, 1928 - November 1, 2020

Margaret Wilkinson Carroll was born on August 15,1928 in Brady, Texas, the first daughter and third child of Archibald Baker Wilkinson and Mary Madean Godfrey Wilkinson, joining big brothers Archibald and Vernon. The Wilkinson family was one of Menard County’s pioneer ranching families, with Margaret’s grandfather WJ Wilkinson settling there in the 1860s. This pioneering legacy made Margaret a tough and persevering yet ladylike West Texas gal through and through. Her lifelong love of sheep ranching began when her family moved into the ranch house on Waddell Lane in Menard County built by her grandfather. The family moved to town when Margaret began attending Menard schools, where she participated in many activities including basketball, tennis, and piano before graduating from Menard High School in 1946. She attended college at Our Lady of the Lake in University in San Antonio before attending and graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in Home Economics and Biology. While at UT, she was a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and sang choir. Later, she earned a master’s degree in special education from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Having many fond memories of childhood visits to see family in Pecos, Margaret chose to move to Pecos after college graduation to teach elementary school. Her two years living in Pecos were also filled with travels around West Texas and across the border to Mexico, planting the seed for her love of travel that eventually took her to destinations all over the world. Her next move was to Eldorado to teach there, which is where she would eventually go on a blind date set up by her lifelong friend Colleen Callan with the man she would marry, Arthur Lee Carroll. Art and Margaret married on June 8, 1952 at the First Presbyterian Church in Menard, marking the beginning of a love story that spanned four decades, involved multiples moves due to Art’s work in the oil fields as a geologist, and blessed them with three children – Lee, Richard and Nancy. The Carroll family called the Texas towns of Menard, Eldorado, Big Spring, Raymondville, San Angelo, Ballinger, Abilene, Sweetwater, Corpus Christi, Houston, and San Antonio home, as well as Colby, Kansas. While Art’s work took the family all around Texas, Margaret’s aforementioned travel bug took her all around the world to destinations like Guatemala, Panama, Mexico and Canada, Egypt and Morocco, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy and England, and to nearly every state in the United States. Another love of Margaret’s was teaching, which she did for over 20 years in public schools across Texas. Her final years as a teacher were spent teaching 3rd grade at J. T. Breckenridge Elementary School in the barrio of San Antonio. When one time she had a student who struggled to stay awake in class because the student shared a bed with several siblings and the gunfire outside their window kept them awake at night, “Mrs. Carroll” gave the child a hug and found a quiet corner of her classroom for the child to rest. Following her retirement from teaching in 1995, Margaret began splitting her time between San Antonio and the ranch house on Waddell Lane. By that time she had been blessed with six grandchildren, and went from traveling the world to traveling around Texas for her grandchildren’s extracurricular activities such as basketball, football, volleyball, orchestra, marching band, and tennis. In Menard, Margaret was a beloved community member, regular bridge player, a founding member and also served as President of the Menard Library Club, and a faithful congregant and elder in the First Presbyterian Church. Margaret’s strong faith and love of family, friends, travel, teaching, and grandchildren activities runs deep, yet nothing runs deeper than her love of ranching. A West Texas sheep rancher from the moment she was born, Margaret raised and nurtured thousands of sheep throughout her 92 years. Margaret was happiest when at the ranch, surrounded by her family and her sheep. Many nights were spent huddled together under an electric blanket on the screened front porch of the ranch house, many days spent with family joining her to shear and drench sheep or mark lambs, many evenings spent on that same front porch watching her sheep come in for water with a bourbon and coke in hand, and every year Thanksgiving was spent around the dining table in the ranch house. Friendships were not hard to come by for Margaret, as she was loving, engaging, and always up for a fun time. The long list of those who will miss her dearly include neighbors from all over Texas, her extended family, former colleagues in public education, fellow bridge players, travel partners, hunters, fellow ranchers, and all who knew her. Other than teaching, traveling and ranching, Margaret loved to read, attend theater, cheer on the San Antonio Spurs and Texas Longhorns, listen to George Strait, tell stories, and spend time with and brag on her grandchildren. Margaret died at the Menard Manor on November 1, peacefully yet gleefully joining in heaven her Heavenly Father and those who preceded her in death: her husband Art, parents Arch and Mary, and brothers Archibald and Vernon. Simultaneously, she leaves behind friends and family who will miss her dearly, including her children Lee Carroll and wife Beverly, Richard Carroll, Nancy Bean and husband Robert, grandchildren Lauren Clay and husband Reed, Craig Bean and wife Christina, Pati Carroll, Ian Carroll, Austin Carroll, and Kevin Carroll, and great-grandsons Jack and George Clay. The family would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of the staff at the Menard Manor, and Sarah Hernandez in particular, for their loving care of Margaret. A graveside service will take place on Friday, November 6 at 2:00pm at the Rest Haven Cemetery in Menard. Visitation will be Friday from 11:00am until 1:00pm at Heritage Funeral Home in Menard. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Menard Public Library in Margaret’s memory, so that she can continue to leave a loving and lasting impression on future generations of children just as she did as a teacher, friend, mother and grandmother.