Margaret Ann Allen. Age 66, passed away Friday, March 24, 2023 at Manna House of Prayer, Concordia, Kansas, where she had requested to spend her last days on hospice with the Sisters of St. Joseph there. Margaret was born September 2, 1956 at Hays, Kansas, daughter of Gladys M. Phillips and Thomas C. Allen of Plainville, Kansas. She graduated from Plainville Rural High School in 1974 and Fort Hays State University in 1978.
She married her best friend, John McKillip Edmonds, at Sacred Heart Church in Plainville, Kansas on February 1, 1980. He preceded her in death on October 24, 2013. They had two children, John Thomas and Wallis Sofie.
Margaret was a journalist. She worked for the Ellis County Star, the Manhattan Mercury, Scotts Bluff Star-Harold, Wichita Eagle, Daily Journal in Caracas, Venezuela and the Hays Daily News. She also worked for the Dallas Business Journal and was Science Writer for Southern Methodist University in the News and Communications Center in Dallas, Texas. Her expert communications resulted in a trip to CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research Research) near Geneva, Switzerland where she toured the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful particle accelerator ever built. The accelerator sits in a tunnel 100 meters underground on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.
Margaret is survived by her children and one grandchild, Sarai Jackson, Hays; brothers Michael (Paula) of Douglas, Georgia and John (June Knittel) of Hays; sister, Marcia Allen, CSJ of Concordia; nieces Josie (Jesse) Thompson and children, Hoxie, KS, Jessalyn (Zach) Brungardt, Hays; Anna Balthazor (Jason Rushford) and children, Wichita, Marlo (Daniel) Ross of Douglas, GA and children, Loy (Clay) Henderson and children, Andalusia, AL; Marnie Smith and son, Douglas, GA; nephew, Joseph Balthazor, Toronto, CA and many other relatives and dear friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, sister Mary E. Balthazor and niece Catherine Smith. It was Margaret’s wishes to be cremated and services and inurnment are pending.
The family suggests memorials to Meadowlark Hospice, WWW.MEADOWLARKHOSPICE.ORG. Online condolences please visit www.chaputbuoy.com.
