Margaret Greensides

Margaret Downing Greensides, much loved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed away into her Lord's presence on April 10, 2018, at her home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. She was 95.

Margaret was born August 30, 1922, in Ardmore, Oklahoma to Lloyd and Lillian Downing. Her parents homesteaded in Canada in 1929, moved to Ellenwood, Kansas in 1934, and to Casper, Wyoming in 1937. Margaret attended college in Laramie, Wyoming for two years and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

She married Lawrence Greensides, an Air Force pilot wounded in WWII, on her 21st birthday (1943) in Casper, Wyoming. Together they had four children. Married for almost seventy years, they had an adventurous life together. After their first two children were born, Larry was called to serve in the Korean War. He was gone for eighteen months. During that time of separation, Margaret taught herself to sew and knit, skills she continued to enjoy all her life. When asked how she handled the extraordinary difficulty of those months while her husband was flying combat missions, she replied that she was only doing her duty. After the war, two more children were born to them in 1952 and 1955.

From 1957-1961, they were stationed in Germany and took many family trips around Europe with their camper-trailer. From Germany they moved to Michigan, until Larry retired in 1964, and the family moved to southern Texas where Margaret opened a yarn shop. Her friendliness and hospitality brought many women in to the shop to learn to knit and crochet. After six years in Texas, the family moved to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in 1970.

Although they had always been “God-fearers,” in 1973, together with her husband Larry, Margaret put her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were both born again, and together their lives were changed. Margaret enjoyed Bible Study Fellowship and was an eager student of the Bible. She and Larry spent a year working with RVICS (Roaming Volunteers in Christ's Service).

Margaret is survived by her four children, Marla (DV) Moyer of Coeur d'Alene; Robert (Jill) Greensides of Colorado Springs; Nancy (Douglas) Wilson of Moscow, Idaho; and Jim (Monica) Greensides of Coeur d'Alene, as well as fifteen grandchildren and twenty-eight great-grandchildren. Her beloved husband Larry preceded her in death in 2012.

Her children and grandchildren remember her as a kindly and gracious woman, who worked cheerfully to serve and love her family, making her home a place they all loved to visit. She was a good listener, as well as a source of funny family stories. Whether knitting blankets, sewing quilts, or making doll clothes for her granddaughters, she took pleasure in the details and bestowed much love on every project.

The family will gather for a graveside service at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery in Medical Lake, Washington on April 26.