Margaret Rosalie Howlett Jones Monkman, a former New Canaan resident, died at the home of her daughter, Elisabeth Pancio, in Lagrangeville, N.Y., on Wednesday, Nov. 27. She had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for the past five years.
Margaret was born in London, England, in 1932. She spent six years of her childhood under bombing raids and evacuation assignments during World War II.
She graduated from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where she met her future husband, the American Richard Monkman. Before her marriage, she moved to Bordeaux, France, where she taught conversational English to French students for one year.
Following that, she spent one more year in New York City working at the United Nations on published nuclear development materials.
Margaret and Richard were then married in London and she began a lifetime career as a clergyman’s wife and partner, serving in Scotland, Connecticut and New York. She carried on this role while teaching in various private schools, including 25 years at the New Canaan Country School.
She and her husband spent their final 21 years in Pound Ridge, N.Y., after which they moved to New Canaan, where she wrote “Bombs and Lambs,” a depiction of her childhood wartime years.
Margaret is survived by her husband and three children, Richard, Jonathan and Elisabeth; seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild, as well as family members in England.
Family services were private.