Margie Moore

Margaret Anne “Margie” (Hoban) Moore died peacefully at Swedish Hospital in Seattle on August 22nd following complications from cancer treatment. She was 86.

Margie was born on March 17, 1940 -- St. Patrick's Day -- to Tom and Vivian (Shaw) Hoban, at Providence Hospital in Seattle, WA. As the story goes, labor was progressing slowly when Tom (a multigenerational Irishman) insisted to doctors, “This baby is being born TONIGHT!” And thus our shamrock-loving Margie obligingly entered the world, at 7:45 p.m.

She joined older sister Mary Beth, and older brother Tom in completing their family, who lived in the home where Vivian had been raised. The Hobans (and Shaws before them) were lifelong members of Blessed Sacrament Parish; Margie attended grade school there. Her grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Shaw, also lived with the family until her death in 1946. The two had a special bond as Margie was several years younger than her siblings, so she and her grandmother spent a lot of silly time together, also planting a garden and helping with family meals.

In the mid 1940s, Margie’s dad Tom built a house on the bluff at Mission Beach on the Tulalip reservation. Margie loved telling stories of fishing with her dad, helping build the house, and making apple pies with her mom from the big Gravenstein tree in their yard. The Hoban family’s summers were full of beach time for decades to come. Margie was terrified of the snakes on the path to the beach, so in her younger years, she spent a lot of time at the house with her dad (Papa) and her mom (Doby), working on home improvements and learning from Doby how to bake and cook.

Margie was a member of the first graduating class at Bishop Blanchet High School (1958). In one of her favorite classes, the nun taught a unit on football – how the scoring works, what’s a first down, nickel vs. dime defenses, and the importance of clock management. Thanks to that nun, Margie’s lifelong love of sports was fostered, as well as her uncanny ability to have snacks and lunch ready exactly at halftime. One of the highlights of Margie’s high school years was her big sister Mary Beth’s wedding and marriage to Chuck Beaulieu, followed by becoming an aunt to their children.

After high school graduation, Margie worked for Darigold and later Hormel Meats in the accounts payable department. In 1961, she traveled across the country with her parents to see her brother Tom graduate from Notre Dame, and then toured Europe for most of that summer, including her first trip to Ireland. She gained lifelong friends and memories from that trip, and she continued to share stories about it for decades.

In 1966, her childhood beach friend Madeline introduced Margie to John Moore, and after a dramatic first date involving the cab driver’s brakes going out while driving the hills of downtown Seattle, the rest was history. John and Margie were married on August 12th of 1967, at Blessed Sacrament church.

The two moved to Bellevue shortly thereafter, to raise daughters Meggins (Margaret Mary, b1968) and Sarah Anne (b1970). (As the story goes, Margie didn’t want to be called “Big Margie,” so John came up with Meggins as a nickname.)

In those years, Margie was an active member of St. Louise Parish, and a mom well known by all the many kids on NE 18th Street for her treats and for hers just being a house where kids could gather and have fun. The door was always open.

She returned to work in 1980 as a bookkeeper at Kirkland Beauty School. After John’s passing in 1993, she continued working in accounting and office management until her retirement in 1999. During that time, she moved to Edmonds to be closer to the water and her extended family. From 1999 to 2005, she lived in Kingston and became quite active in the community – exercise groups, library volunteering, and teaching kids to knit as part of Project Linus.

In 2005, upon learning she was going to be a grandmother of twins, Margie moved back to Seattle, to a house in the Loyal Heights area of Ballard. As much as she had loved being a mom, being a grandmother sent Margie over the moon. She had an incredible bond with grandchildren Jake and Lauren, based in pure love and joy. They went on lots of adventures and shared many traditions together, from drawing “K”s on her window during Felix Hernandez’s perfect game, to baking cookies in the shapes of the 50 states, and many more fun times. She was their most dedicated fan, attending all of Jake’s baseball games and Lauren’s gymnastics meets.

During the Ballard era, Margie adopted Miles, her little blind West Highland Terrier, who she absolutely adored. She nursed him back to health, and the two were inseparable for several years. Through her walks in the neighborhood with him, she grew several new friendships with her neighbors on NW 73rd Street. She also became very active again with her beloved Blessed Sacrament Parish.

Margie was a greeter, served on the coffee-hour committee, organized the funeral committee, helped plan the 100-year celebration, and gave monthly tours of the church for 17 years. The Blessed Sacrament community was and always had been her home. In her later years, she moved to an apartment in the Ravenna neighborhood where she met even more new friends and was able to be closer to church.

Margie loved SO many things, but being Irish was certainly at the top of the list. She spent her first babysitting money on a shamrock teacup while on a trip to BC in the early 1950s, and began a lifelong collection from there. She had a crazy knack for finding four-leaf clovers. Every year on St. Patrick’s Day, her home would be filled with birthday cards, and her phone would ring off the hook. She visited Ireland four times, and did extensive research into family genealogy, becoming an expert resource in the Facebook era for countless members of her extended families on both sides.

She loved the Seattle Supersonics, Seahawks football, and most recently Mariners baseball. Her love and knowledge of gardening and native NW plants stayed with her from those earliest days with her grandmother. She loved birds and wildlife, walking with friends, sewing and knitting, DIY projects, and so much more. A friend once pointed out that she was a “walking Seattle History channel.” She had an innate grasp of the importance of little everyday things.

Her greatest love, however, was family. She had a beautiful way of showing up for family members in times of need and joy, and reminding everyone how important it is to stay connected to relatives. She loved babies and little children most of all. Nothing gave her greater happiness than seeing all the births in her family these last several years.

Margie is preceded in death by her parents, sister Mary Beth, brother-in-law Chuck, brother Tom, husband John and his five siblings and their spouses. She’s survived by daughter Meggins of Los Angeles, daughter Sarah and her husband Alan of Seattle, grandchildren Jake and Lauren, sister-in-law Maureen, and countless cousins, nieces, nephews, great nieces/nephews and their children.

Several years younger than her siblings, she would often joke that she had been “a mistake.” She was not. She was perfect just the way she was.

Safe home, Margie. Slán abhaile.

Her funeral mass will be held at Blessed Sacrament church in Seattle, 5050 8th Ave NE, on Thursday, September 24th at 1:00 p.m., with a reception to follow.

Cancer is awful. Please prioritize getting your recommended screenings.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Cancer Lifeline, or to Seattle Humane.