Margaret June Bayless Jagger was born on May 31, 1921 to Mina Robb and Monty Bayless in a farm house outside of Wakarusa, Kansas—a small town south of Topeka. Her soul passed from this earth at 10:40 a.m. on February 20, 2019 surrounded by family. She was 97 years and 9 months old.

Margaret grew up in Topeka in a four-generation household which included her mother and younger brother, Frank; her mother's unmarried sister (Aunt Jessie), her grandparents, and her great-grandmother. She graduated from Highland Park High school with academic honors in 1939 where she also was active in many student clubs and activities. She then enrolled at Kansas State College (KSC). There she met Joe Jagger whom she married on December 4, 1942 when both were seniors. Margaret was very active in a number of student organizations and was elected to many honorary organizations including Mortar Board, the senior women's honorary. At graduation in May, 1943, she was named one of 20 outstanding seniors (as was Joe).

Joe graduated a semester early in January, 1942, joined the Army, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. After Margaret's college graduation, Margaret joined Joe and they moved together for the next year and a half as Joe was stationed at army bases in Texas, Georgia, and Louisiana. Joe's unit, the 84 ^th Infantry Division, went overseas in September, 1944. Margaret and Joe would not see each other again for more than a year and a half. Joe spent three months in a hospital in England after being wounded in heavy combat during the Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded a Purple Heart medal for his wounds and a Bronze Star medal for valor. After the war in Germany ended, Joe stayed in Germany for about a year as part of the occupation forces until he returned home in April, 1946. Once again together, they returned to the Jagger farm in Ottawa County where they farmed for the next 53 years. Joe passed on March 31, 1993 at the age of 72. Margaret outlived him by almost 26 years. In total, Margaret lived in Ottawa County for almost 73 years.

Margaret was a person of many talents and interests most of which involved helping people—especially children. She had both a passion for--and a calling to—teaching, doing so at the university, high school, and grade school levels.

Her first professional teaching position was during 1944 and 1945 when as an Instructor at Kansas State College's Child Guidance Laboratory she taught college students majoring in child development. After a hiatus from 1946 to 1952 during which time, Margaret worked as a "homemaker, farmer's wife, and mother of three sons on the family farm," she returned to the labor market as a Social Worker for the   Ottawa County Department of Social Welfare focusing on children's welfare. During this time, she helped moved a number of children out of bad situations and into good situations. While not classroom teaching, her social work involved many of the same skills, talents, and compassion as those of good classroom teachers. She worked as a Social worker from 1953 to 1956,

In 1956, Margaret started the high school and grade school classroom teaching that she would do for the rest of her professional career. From 1956 through 1958, Margaret taught Home Economics and General Science at Delphos High School in Delphos, KS. The next year, she taught first grade at Delphos. And then, in 1959, she moved to Minneapolis Grade School where she taught second grade for 1959-1974, combined first and second grade for 1975-76, and first grade for 1977-83. She retired in 1983.

Margaret's classrooms were fun and nontraditional. For example, she taught her first and second graders to square dance and they then performed for parents and other grades. She put on a pioneer dress and played Home on the Range and other songs on her harmonica while the class sat around the "camp fire" for Kansas Day. Her students wrote and performed plays. They made dioramas with dinosaurs. And she felt that when her students were engaged, the room should reflect their enthusiasm, not an enforced silence. While these types of activities have become more mainstream, at the time she was doing them, they were cutting edge and innovative. In 1978, the Kansas Arts Commission recognized her creativity with its SPARK award for "outstanding, innovative use of the arts in the classroom."

Two stories help capture Margaret's approach to her students and her teaching. One parent told Margaret that when she asked her first grader after his first day of school who his teacher was, he hemmed and hawed for awhile as he tried to remember then blurted out, "the lady with the smiling face." On another first day of school, a friend told Margaret that "today is the start of another school year during which you will be making lifelong friends."

In 1969, Margaret earned her Masters Degree at Emporia State University. She went on to earn another 20 hours of graduate credits. In 1991, Margaret was chosen by Emporia State University as one of seven Master Teachers for the State of Kansas.

Margaret also had a lifelong passion for writing. Over the years, her articles and stories have appeared in Parents Magazine, Successful Farming, Pipe Creek Shirts Newsletter, Kanhistique, Wichita Eagle, Minneapolis Messenger, Keynotes, and Kansas Heritage Magazine. Her stories often based on family stories from the 1870s to the early 1900s, have placed ten times, with two first places, in the Factual Pioneer Story Contest sponsored by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas. Two stories have been published as illustrated story books—Buffalo Stampede and Powwow on the Riverbank. A rock band in Kansas used Buffalo Stampede as the basis for a song of the same title. In addition, her writings have placed a number of times in fiction, prose, and poetry categories of district and state Kansas Authors Club contest. They also have placed several times in the World of Poetry contests.

Margaret was also involved in many community and church activities. She taught Sunday School for eight years, was a 4-H project leader for eleven years, coached the first place team at the CK Ranch square dance competition. has been Republican Committeewoman for Blaine township, an active participant of the Ottawa County Association for Mental Health, She was a charter member of the Quest Club study group and of the Rock City Ramblers Square Dance Club While a social worker she served on the steering committee for the Kansas Conference of Social Work and was vice president and program chairman of the North Central Kansas Welfare Association. Margaret has served on the advisory boards of the Ottawa County Department of Public Health, the Ottawa County Association for Mental Health, and the Good Samaritan Center nursing home. She has been Ottawa County's representative on the governing boards of the Occupational Center of Central Kansas in Salina and for the Central Kansas Mental Health Center, a five-county regional mental health treatment center also in Salina, and the advisory board of Rock City Inc. She is a member of the Kansas Authors Club, Delta Kappa Gamma (international society of women educators, the VFW Auxiliary, and the Presbyterian Women. She also served as an elder of the Presbyterian Church of Minneapolis, and the North Central Kansas Tourism board.

Margaret is preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, Joe Jagger; parents, Mina Robb and Monty Bayless; brother, Frank Bayless; aunt, Jessie Blood; parents-in-law, Fred and Ethel Jagger; brothers and sisters-in-law, Julia and Ralph Nelson; Sid Jagger; Mary and Wes Buchele; nephews, Mike Bayless, Rod Buchele, and Larry Nelson; nieces-in-law, Jeannie Nelson and Jean Nelson, and great-nephew, Joshua Nelson.

She is survived by her three sons and their families, John Jagger of Minneapolis, KS, James Jagger and Marcia Musick Nagle of San Antonio, TX; and Craig Jagger, Joy Harwood, Margaret Jagger, and Caroline Jagger of Chevy Chase, MD; sisters-in-law, Norma Bayless of Niwot, CO and Dennie Jagger of Austin, TX; 13 nieces and nephews and their families; and hundreds of former students.

Funeral services will be at 2:00 P.M., Friday, March 1 at the First Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis. Burial will be in Highland Cemetery, Minneapolis. Visitation will be from 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. Thursday at Wilson Family Funeral Home, Minneapolis. The family kindly requests that in lieu of flowers memorials be given to the First Presbyterian Church, Ottawa County Historical Museum, or Rock City.