Margaret Jane Maeser Cannon slipped away peacefully on June 27th, 2014, in the presence of her husband and daughter Elizabeth. Margaret was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on the day after Thanksgiving in 1927. She was the daughter of Earl Maeser, a teacher and high school principal, and Bessie Taylor Howe, a homemaker and kindergarten teacher. She has two brothers, Paul Howe Maeser (LaRee Nuttall), deceased, and Earl Stanford Maeser (Saundra Zirker). The first thirteen years of her life were spent in southeastern Idaho: eight years in Weston, four years in Malad, and two years in Montpelier. Margaret loved growing up in these small Idaho towns. She couldn't have had a happier childhood; she fondly remembered the farm animals, the freedom, the open country, and the good people. When she was in the ninth grade, her family moved to Urbana, Illinois, where they participated in opening the first branch of the LDS Church there. The next year, they moved to Kinston, North Carolina, where her father, an Annapolis graduate, worked to train U.S. Air Force personnel for World War II. While there, they attended an LDS unit so far from their home that they could only attend once a month due to gas rationing. Her father then returned to active duty in the U.S. Navy and served in the South Pacific as an officer for a Seabee unit. While he was overseas, his wife and children moved to Salt Lake City, where Margaret encouraged her mother to purchase the first and only home her parents owned. As a teenager, Margaret was active in MIA as a Golden Gleaner and taught MIA classes. She spent two summers in Ventura, California, when her father came back to equip new Seabee units. Margaret graduated from East High School in Salt Lake City, then began attending the University of Utah, where she met John Nelson Cannon. He left on a mission to England soon after they met, but they renewed their friendship after his return. Margaret was affiliated with the Panhellenic Council, and served as the vice president of the senior class. She graduated Phi Kappa Phi with a B.A. in 1949 in elementary education and then taught first grade in Salt Lake City for the next three years. She and John were married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1951 during her second year of teaching. They learned from each other's strengths and complemented each other's weaknesses. Margaret enjoyed pointing to a plaque in their home that read "Marriages are made in heaven—and so is thunder and lightening." Margaret and John observed their 63rd anniversary in March. During her last years, his calm presence and knowledgeable care comforted her mind and prolonged her life. Early in their marriage, John and Margaret lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Salt Lake City. Later they spent two years at Stanford, California, where John finished a PhD; went on a year's sabbatical to Washington, D.C.; and served an eighteen-month LDS mission to Oregon. However, for most of the past fifty years they have lived in their beloved Oak Hills neighborhood in Provo. John and Margaret had six children: John M. Cannon (deceased, married to Vonda Brown), Elizabeth Cannon Funk, Paul M. Cannon (Linda Busenbark), David M. Cannon, Cathy Cannon Woolley (Scott), and Christian M. Cannon (Corenna Critchfield). While her children were home, Margaret served in the PTA and was Provo City PTA president. She participated in Girl Scouts, where she was a "Green Angel" and neighborhood chairman. She was active in the D.A.R. and the BYU Engineer Wives Club and was an officer in BYU Women. She helped start a Great Books Club, which met for more than 50 years, and Pro Libris, a neighborhood women's club that continues today. She taught in her LDS ward's Primary and Sunday School. She served several times as ward and stake Relief Society president in her home ward, her stake, and on BYU campus. She fulfilled a lifelong dream in her fifties by earning a Master's degree in Victorian Literature from BYU. She spent years researching and writing a biography of her great-grandfather, Amos Howe. She survived breast cancer twice. Fourteen years ago she was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Recently she was also diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Throughout her service and the physical challenges she faced, she maintained an inclusive outlook, a cheerful heart, and a delightful sense of humor and loved being a Mother. She loved learning, surrounding herself with good books, and read up to the last hours of her life. She developed her writing talents by taking classes, journaling, writing family histories, and submitting articles and jokes to magazines. She dabbled in sewing, embroidery, quilting, knitting, watercolor painting, gardening, traveling, playing Yahtzee and solitaire, bargain shopping, and French. She had a taste for opera, British literature, old movies, ice cream, and—most importantly—chocolate. Her family was the greatest joy of her life. She also felt deeply blessed by and grateful for her Oak Hills neighbors, her friends, and her family throughout her life. Margaret expressed deep appreciation for the gospel that provided stability to her life during her many moves and gave her hope for eternal relationships with the people she cherished.
Survived By: Her husband; her brother, Earl; five of her six children; 28 grandchildren and 29 great-grand children.
Services: Oak Hills LDS Chapel, Provo.
Mortuary: Sundberg-Olpin Mortuary
Obituary: Sundberg-Olpin Mortuary