Margaret Hanlon, homemaker, artist

Margaret W. Hanlon, 85, who lived in Ridgefield for more than 20 years and raised a family of seven children, died Thursday, Oct. 26, at New Milford Hospital after a brief illness. She was the wife of the late George W. Hanlon, and had lived the last 19 years in Bantam.
“She was a homemaker and mother — and with seven kids, you had to be organized,” said her son George A. Hanlon of Ridgefield.
“She was independent right up to her death,” he said. “She balanced her checkbook two weeks ago.”
Mrs. Hanlon was born in Beacon, N.Y., on Oct. 5, 1915, a daughter of the late Winfield K. and Mary Cummings Wurster. She grew up in Beacon.
Mrs. Hanlon moved to Ridgefield from New Canaan in 1957. She lived in town from 1957 to 1978, with homes on Wilton Road West, Great Hill Road and Craigmoor Road. She was an area resident until 1981, when she moved to Bantam.
She was an avid reader, a writer who had short stories published in magazines, an artist who worked in watercolors, and a pianist.
“She loved painting flowers,” said her son George. “She’d taken writing courses and painting courses. She was writing in the 70s, and actually they were pretty good stories.”
On the piano she played “the old favorites, mostly, everything by ear, though she had studied piano as a child and did read music,” said her daughter, Majorie Hanlon-Gardella of Redding.
She was a member of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Bethel.
Mrs. Hanlon was predeceased by a brother, Arthur Wurster, and a sister, Beatrice Conway.
Besides her son in Ridgefield and daughter in Redding she is survived by two other sons, William N. Hanlon of Bethel and Michael P. Hanlon of Hudson, N.Y.; three other daughters, Patricia Clark of Park City, Utah, Catherine “Betty” Lischke of Newburyport, Mass., and Sharon Brewer of Wickford, R.I.; one brother, William Wurster of Baltimore, Md.; one sister, Catherine Sharkey of Mapleshade, N.J.; 22 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.
A graveside service was conducted Monday at St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Kane Funeral Home, 41 Catoonah Street, handled arrangements. Contributions in Mrs. Hanlon’s memory may be made to New Milford Hospital, 21 Elm Street, New Milford, CT 06776.