Letters from Margaret

Margaret Myers Stokes was born in Walkerville in 1915 above Petch’s Drug Store (now Peerless Ice Cream) on the corner of Chilver and Wyandotte. She moved to Hamilton over 60 years ago but her memories of Walkerville remained sharp. Margaret began writing to the Walkerville Times almost three years ago after someone sent her a copy. We received so many letters from Margaret, (sometimes two a day) we decided to create a column called “Letters from Margaret.”

From Margaret we learned about the bats that flew into the Walkerville Bell Telephone office one hot night and how the operators were so embarrassed when police arrived in response to their screams as they were in their slips because of the heat. She also described the “Lipstick Caper” when a thief was brought into court for making off with her Elizabeth Arden lipstick in 1937. And she told us about her beloved younger brother Cameron a WWII hero, who was shot down at the age of 20.

In our September 2001 issue, Margaret wrote: “I turned 86 on July 19. I didn’t know whether to go outside, raise my arms and yell ‘Hurrah’ or sit down on the curb and cry because I’ll turn 90 in four years!”

That was the last letter we received from Margaret. We learned from friends that she was not doing very well and then on the morning of Tuesday, February 26, we received a call informing us that Margaret had passed away.

We never met Margaret but we will miss her and her
letters. May she rest in peace.

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