Matrilineal Monday – Margaret Ann Hall 1930 - 2011

This beautiful young woman was my mother-in-law Margaret Ann Hall who was born 11 Dec 1930 in Nassau Bahamas to Margaret Louise (Smith) and Hershel Stanley Hall.  She was the youngest child of six, and the couple's only daughter.  At the age of sixteen her mother sent her to Miami, FL to work as a nanny for a wealthy family from New York who wintered in Miami.  Margie had lived a sheltered life up until this time and her mother warned her to do her job and stay away from boys.  Unfortunately for Margie she was a beautiful young woman and I suspect heads turned wherever  she went.  The family she worked for spent each winter in a luxury hotel on Miami Beach and it was here that she met the man who was to become her husband.

Alvin S. Rogers, Jr. had just gotten out of the Navy and instead of going home to Trenton, NJ to become a doctor as was expected of him, he wanted to do something different with his life.  He had seen the world while in the Navy and gotten out from under, what I believe, was a domineering mother.  He stopped in Miami to make his own way and took a job as a doorman at the same hotel where Margie was working, and history, as they say, was made.  As soon as their paths crossed, Al was smitten with the young beauty and as the story has been told in this family, could not leave her alone.  In June 1949, Margie was sent back to New York with her young charge in an effort to keep her away from Alvin.  Not be deterred, Alvin, along with his sister jumped in a car and drove all the way to New York to woo his true love.  There are a lot more details to this story that I will not bore you with, but in the end they were wed in New York, NY on 10 Jun 1949 and their first son was born nine months later in Miami in March 1950.  Another son would follow in 1951, a daughter in 1952.

On 11 May 1953, while eight months pregnant with her fourth child, my husband, Margie petitioned the U.S. District Court in Miami for Naturalization and was granted the same.  On the Petition she listed her current address: 11501 NE 11 Pl, Miami, Fla; she listed her date of birth and place of birth (Nassau, Bahamas), her height, 5’1’, her weight 100 pounds.  She listed her husband as Alvin Stackhouse Rogers (click here for a look at his ancestry chart) and their marriage date as 10 Jun 1949.  She also listed her three children, their names and dates of birth.

She stated she was 21 years of age and formerly a British citizen.  The picture here is the one that was used on the Department of Justice's Certificate of Naturalization.  I have to assume this picture was taken at or about this time so she would have been about 21 in this picture and was most likely pregnant with my husband at that time.  So few pictures exist in my husband’s family so this makes it all the more special to us.  

Margie and Alvin went on to have three more children for a total of seven.  There are many more stories I could tell, and I'm sure there were some happy times but the marriage had insurmountable issues.  Alvin's mother inserted herself into their life and many problems ensued.  Unfortunately their marriage ended in divorce in March 1971.  She later married Joseph Eaglebarger (1929 - 1986).  After her second husband's death she lived for a number of years in Margate, FL and then in Georgia with one of her sons.  She also traveled around the country and to Nassau visiting family on a regular basis.  Margie's family was extremely important to her and nothing made her more happy than to have them gathered around her. After a short illness she died 26 Aug 2011 at the age of 80 in Plantation, FL at our home.  In the short time before she died she shared with us many stories we had never heard before and we felt honored and privileged to have had that time to talk to her and hear her stories. She left behind six living children, thirteen living grandchildren, a number of great-grandchildren as well as many family members in the Bahamas.  She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, one son and one grandson.